


Below

by OblivionTime, scarlthesnarl



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: F/M, Gore, dark themes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 05:26:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4467083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OblivionTime/pseuds/OblivionTime, https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarlthesnarl/pseuds/scarlthesnarl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reverb 2015. It was supposed to be an easy mission. Now Maka and Soul find themselves thousand feet below in a mine searching for the one behind the disappearing of countless of children. The longer they spend in the mine, they dig their own graves inside the depth of the abandoned mine. Contains dark themes and gore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is my entry for Reverb 2015! My partner in crime is scarlethousecarl who came up with the mine idea and art. Then we have my wonderful beta, RBKNinja, my queen of darkness, who gave me all the awesome horror ideas. She’s also the one responsible for the tentacle innuendo.

**Below**

_Prologue_

 

An ear-piercing scream echoed in the dark space. Tears ran down his pale cheeks and he could taste his snot on his lips. Desperately he kicked, swung and wormed his body, trying to escape the black liquid limbs clinging onto his body.

    “Get away from me!” He breathed hectically as the black wandered up his body, slowly pulling him into the dark mass.

    “Father! Brother! Help me!” He begged as he swung his left arm, freeing it from a loop of liquid. His waist sunk down into the black mass he’d desired and sought for for so long. The power he’d longed for, the power he’d desperately practised to maintain and rule over.

    His screams only grew louder as he sunk lower and lower. The mass climbed up his chest, neck and ran over his neck.

    “Brother!” He called out one final time before he was devoured and only silence was left within the quiet space.


	2. Level One

**Below**

_Level One_

 

“This is it, right?” Soul questioned as him and Maka gazed at the building. “The abandoned mine they were talking about.”

    Various thick branches with large green leaves framed the opening into mountain wall. Dark wood opened the mountain wall and dense darkness filled the mouth of the once used mine.

    “It’s got to be.” Maka kneeled and examined the ground. The high thriving grass was stomped down and left behind the echo of small footprints. Maka reached for a branch on the ground and lifted it. The brown shell was broken and the end hung flaccidly on a small cord of pale wood. “Footprints of small shoes. Broken branches. The missing children must’ve disappeared inside of the mine.” The branch slipped from her fingers and softly landed on the grass.

    “It’s like Lord Death suspected. The Kishin got to hide inside.” Soul approached his meister. His hands were deeply buried in his pockets of his leather jacket. “And the kids should be there as well.”

    Maka turned toward her partner and slipped off her backpack. “We’re lucky we came prepared.” The brown worn bag of hers landed with a _‘thud’_ on the ground and she went down on her knees on the soft grass which tickled her pale skin. She opened the lid of her bag and her hand dived down.

    They’d come prepared. Both of them packed their own bags. Each of them packed two flashlights, a 6-pack of batteries, five glow sticks, a headlamp and rope. Maka had packed three bottles of water and four bars, while Soul packed a first-aid kit.

    Inside of the safety of their apartment, the night before they’d take off to the Appalachian city, Maka caught a glance of Soul inside of the bathroom. He’d reached up toward the top shelf in their bathroom and retrieved the see-through round bottle with a red and yellow feather decorating the top. The liquid inside was red, not as perfect crimson like Soul’s eyes, the liquid was a little brighter and she could see through the different surfaces through the red.

    After Shibusen and the witches put their differences aside, a partnership between the different realms was formed. Shibusen promised not to hunt anymore witches and in return the witches created a magical healing serum from phoenix feathers which could heal a fatal wound in seconds.

    Maka watched Soul gaze at the bottle with his eyebrows narrowed and his lips pressed into a line. She could clearly see the thought of not wanting to be put in a situation when he was forced to use clear on his face. Even on the simplest missions, he brought it with him. After a few moments he opened up his leather jacket and pocketed in his inside pocket.

    Soul followed and dropped his bag to the ground. Both of them retrieved a headlamp and Soul discarded his band into his bag so he could painlessly wear his headlamp. Maka struggled with the straps of hers and as the loyal weapon he was, he aided his meister by lifting her pigtails away so she could strap it behind her head.

    “Thanks.” She murmured and closed her backpack.

    “You’re welcome.” She pressed the button above the headlamp and it lit up. The light blinded his eyes and instantly he cursed and looked away from her. An apology quickly followed.

    A small smile tugged the corner of her lips and she quickly turned on his headlamp. “Let’s head inside. The kids need us.”

    “Right.” The headlamp lit up the darkness inside of the entrance as the branches on the ground crunched under their feet. As they reached the entrance, automatically their hands were drawn to the other and their fingers entwined.

    Wooden boards held up the stone walls and created round walls. A pipe went along the side of the roof deeper into the mine than their headlamps could light up. Along the floor were rusty tracks for a cart to travel on. On the right side of the wall was a large panel with three dusty grey levers.

    Silently Maka tugged Soul toward the panel and underneath each one of them, were different words written on. Under the right one was _level one_ written, the one in the middle _level two_ and the third _level three_.

    “What is this?” Soul leaned toward the panel and gazed at the levers.

    “It’s right by the entrance. I guess they’re lights for every level this mine has.” Maka’s gloved hand caressed right under the black letters of _level one_. “I think they wanted to control their power usage. So every morning the workers would arrive and the boss would turn on the lights for every level then at night at the designated time, he’d turn it off.”

    “Do you think these works? This mine looks to be abandoned for quite some time.”

    “Let’s find out.” Maka reached for the lever for _level one_. With a powerful tug, it hit the bottom of the panel, but nothing happened. Not a spark from the old lamps in the corridor. “I guess they’re too old to function.”

    “But shouldn’t they?” Soul watched as Maka returned the lever in its place. “We found tracks from the kids going inside, so the Kishin and the kids _should_ be here, and they need power, right?”

    “It does sound weird. Without a source of light, it would be impossible to orientate around the mine.” She turned her back on the panel and her gaze moved up toward the ceiling. The light of her lamp search the roof of the cave until they stopped at a long lamp. “The lights appear to function. Maybe the electricity was cut off when the mine was abandoned.”

    “That does make some sense I guess.” Soul gently tugged at Maka’s hand. “Let’s keep moving. The kids need us.”

    Maka faced her partner, she looked slightly toward the side so she wouldn’t blind her partner with her headlamp. “Right.”

    They moved deeper inside of the mine. The light from the morning sun reduced until there was nothing left. Deeper they went, more bats appeared on the ceiling. They hung from the ceiling with their wings crossing their bodies. As soon as their lights would stay on a bat for too long, it would shriek and fly away to find a new and darker place to hide away from the lights.

    The floor went slightly down, indicating they were heading downward. The light occasionally travelled to the walls in search for any other indications of the kids’ whereabouts in the mine.

    Soul squeezed Maka’s hand and she carefully glanced at him.

    The lights of their headlamps landed on the same spot ten yards before them. From a wide hole in the ground rose two tick braided ropes of metal. The thick steel ropes glistered dully in the light of their headlamps.

    The corridor continued forward after the hole and they were left with a choice.

    “What should we do?” Soul spoke up, looking at the hole. “You’re the one with the brains.”

    “That’s not true.” Her head was slightly away from him and she stared into his eyes without hurting his eyes. “You’re not very book smart, but you’re very clever in areas I could never learn about.”

    Soul cocked his eyebrow at his meister. “Like?”

    “Like music.” A smile spread on her face. “You’re a very skilful musician and your knowledge about sounds is amazing.”

    “Yeah and that’ll definitely help in a mine.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “As flattering as it is having my ego boosted, I’m not in need of it like our friend with god complexes.”

    Maka faced away from him. Her cheeks heated slightly and her heart picked up its pace. There was no time for her feelings to run off with her. Lord Death sent them to the mine for a reason. They’re in the Kishin’s territory and they need to be on their toes. They don’t know when the Kishin decides to appear and welcome them to its humble home.

    “I suggest then we check out the hole first before we decide anything.” Maka retrieved her hand from her partner, which allowed her heart to calm down to its original pace. Carefully she neared the hole and Soul was close behind her.

    “Just don’t get too close. Wouldn’t want your chest getting flatter that it already is.” Soul snickered as his hand held onto her black coat.

    Maka rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. Very funny.”

    Maka gazed down in the hole while Soul glanced over her shoulder. Darkness. Dense darkness. Their headlamps couldn’t break the darkness and expose the floor. The metal ropes continued down into the dark where their lights couldn’t reach.

    “This must be an elevator shaft, right?” Soul questioned as his fingers dug into the fabric of Maka’s coat. Too afraid if he let her go, she’d fall down into the hole. “How deep is it?”

    “Deep.” Maka took a step away from the edge and dropped her bag again on the ground, Soul’s hand slipped from her coat. “But we’re going to find out.” From her bag she retrieved a glow stick. She broke the middle and shook it. The stick started to glow a soft green. Maka carefully neared the ledge and automatically Soul grabbed a hold of her coat. Gravel fell over the edge and disappeared into the shaft’s darkness. She held out the glow stick over the edge and she let it go.

    “One-thousand-one… one-thousand-two… one-thousand-three…” Maka continued to count loudly as the glow stick grew smaller and smaller until it was barely visible. “One-thousand-ten… one-thousand-eleven…” The light wasn’t visible anymore and there was no sound of the glow stick hitting the ground. “One-thousand-eighteen… one-thousand-nineteen―”

    “I think we got it. It’s really deep.” Soul interrupted Maka and nervously tugged at her jacket. “Now get away from there. Let’s continue forward―”

    “Wait Soul.” Maka backed away from the hole and swung her backpack over her shoulders. “Think about it, the Kishin hides inside of this mine, wouldn’t it make more sense for it to hide deeper within the mine instead of the first floor? It would hide either on the second or the third level, right?”

    Soul grimaced. “It does make sense, but shouldn’t we search through this floor for clues?”

    “I don’t think there are more clues to find here. I got a gut feeling the Kishin must be down there.”

    “Fine.” Soul groaned and ran his hand through his hair. “Whatever you say goes.”

    A large smile stretched on her face and she held her hand out toward him. “Transform.”

    Soul gave a nod and his body lit up. The corridor lit up and a long shadow casted behind Maka. The light moved to Maka’s hand before it disappeared and she was left with the light grey shaft of her weapon. Their souls reached for the other’s and as naturally as breathing, their souls connected and instantly a strong resonance was formed. The blade of the scythe shrunk so only a dull short ledge was left. The golden metal sprouted and slowly they grew into large wings.

    “Here we go.” Maka jumped into the hole and use the ledge of his blade as footing. The wings fluttered as they descended down the elevator shaft. They made sure to stay in the middle so the wings wouldn’t hit the ropes. They descended. Deeper and deeper. The shaft was supported with dark wood that once must’ve been strong and fresh from the sawmill. They sunk deeper and deeper inside with no sign of the second level. The wings fluttered comfortingly as their hearts beat as one.

    Maka’s nostrils flared. The scent of dust and stone slowly turned into something new, something familiar to a Shibusen student. It smelled like soiled ham and minerals. Her grip on Soul’s shaft tightened.

    “Look.” Soul spoke up from his weapon form.

    Maka’s eyes found the target Soul questioned. It was a hole in the wall about four yards beneath them. They sunk down to it and carefully toward the ledge of the hole. The scent overwhelmed Maka’s senses. The smell of rotten meat and minerals. Soul felt Maka’s concern and soothingly caressed her soul with his own.

    Maka stepped down from Soul’s scythe and her feet hit the ground.


	3. Level Two

**Below**

_Level Two_

 

“Soul.” Maka gulped and her hand gripped the metal shaft harder. “I’ve got a _really_ bad feeling.”

    “I hear you.” The mine lit up as Soul transformed back to his original form. “Look.”

    Maka followed the light of Soul’s headlamp and it landed on a sign saying _level two_.

    They’d reached the second level of the mine. According to the panel on the first level, there was one more. “We better investigate this floor first before we move on to the next one.” Maka bit her lower lip and her hands balled into fists. “Maybe the kids are on this floor.”

    Soul reached out for his meister and grabbed her hand. He didn’t try to reassure her. He simply braided their fingers together and gave her hand a squeeze.

    Slowly they moved away from the shaft and deeper into the new corridor. The stench grew stronger and Maka’s stomach grew heavier because she knew what was about to come. She knew what the smell came from. She knew―

    The light from Maka’s headlamp exposed a singly arm. Where the arm was supposed to be attached to a shoulder was blood covering the stub and the floor was drenched in blood. The smell of copper clogged up her nostrils and she flung her hand to her mouth. “Oh death.” She murmured through the fabric of her glove. Her body ran cold and every hair on her body rose.

    The arm was the size of a child.

    Soul closed his eyes and squeezed Maka’s hand sorrowfully. “It’s just one.”

    It was just one. _It was just one arm_. That didn’t mean all the children abducted from the peaceful little mountain city met the same fate as this one. There could still be more alive.

    She inhaled deeply and exhaled. Slowly the two proceeded to the arm. The blood from the limb wasn’t a fresh red like her partner’s eyes. It was a deep red, almost black. More blood stains went in the direction of deeper inside of the mine. The arm was pale. Almost white. Blue lines of the veins pressed against the skin and created bumps on the arm. The hand was balled into a fist as if the owner was frightened, maybe anxiously waiting for doom to come or fighting off the threat. However the owner acted, it had left the child without an arm.

    “With proper medical attention the person could still be alive.” Soul continued. “The child could be hiding somewhere in need of our help.” None of them believed his words.

    “We should continue forward then.” Maka softly spoke as she ripped her eyes away from the tragic sight of the arm.

    “Right.”

    Their hands stayed entwined as they walked over the arm and they followed the trail of dried blood.

    The stench grew stronger. It stung her nostrils and she dreaded for what they’ll find, because it wasn’t a question about if, it was when. As much as she knew it, she knew her partner wasn’t an idiot and he knew as well what they would find.

    And a question about time it was.

    Deeper into the corridor they went, the stains grew larger and they appeared more often. It was a matter of time until they stumbled upon another arm just as small as the previous. It was only a few steps away a large wooden door appeared in the light of their headlamps.

    The closer they got to it, more blood appeared. Blood was dried onto the wood was it a person desperately had collided into the door in hope of escaping something. In hope of the doors to budge and open up a gap to slip in and finally stop screaming in horror and fear. To finally be able to breathe for a second, even if it was only a part of a second.

    Silently they went up toward the door and their hands touched the large and thick iron rings and pulled at it. The door was heavy. Both of them had to powerfully pull at the rings in order for the double doors to budge. The doors creaked loudly as the gravel under their feet rustled for every step they took. Both exhaled and released the rings. The crack between the double doors was enough for both of them to slip through.

    Maka was first to enter and Soul wasn’t far behind.

    “Oh death!” Maka gasp loudly and red veins grew on her whites as if they threatened to escape their sockets.

    “Shit.” Her partner cursed and stared with wide eyes.

    Bodies. The chamber they entered was full with bodies. Limbs were tossed everywhere like Soul’s clothes in his room. Blood was splattered on the wall and covered the floor. It was on the floor, splashed on the rusty railing going under a double wooden door to the right. Or it might not be rust, only blood. The limbs were small and all of them were in the state of decaying.

    As their headlamps slowly moved around the room, rats shrieked and hissed at them, blood covering their dark fur and mouths full with flesh, before they escaped the light.

    Maka’s hands flung to her face to protect her nostrils from the stench. Carefully she took a step further into the room decorated with matching double doors. On the left double door was a large blood splatter. Pieces of meat were dried into the wood and the rest was on the ground for the rats to feed from.

    Soul’s stomach stirred with disgust and worry for his meisters. She is Maka Albarn. The one who took down the mighty Kishin Asura. The one who made him into _The Last Death Scythe_. She who has a powerful Grigori soul and the most powerful Soul Perception in the entire planet.

    But she was also human.

    His fingers tingled and silently he approached her. His hand settled on her shoulder and massaged her muscle. “We don’t need to stay here.”

    Maka bit her lower lip and leaned into his touch, slowly her hands lowered from her mouth.  “We’re members of Shibusen.” She paused and her stomach stirred with the stench from the rotten flesh. “We should investigate this area. Kid will want a detailed report about this occurrence.” Maka stepped away from his hand and hers dropped to her sides. She carefully approached the left double doors where the blood splatter was on the doors.

    Her eyes narrowed into silvers as she kneeled down in front of the mess of flesh and bones on the ground. From the dark pile of flesh jutted out a rib, a kneecap, an arm and a rotten half-eaten small foot. The foot missed a toe and one missed flesh completely.

    Throughout her education at Shibusen, she saw corpses of victims of Kishin. Some killed clean with a slice on the chest, some without a head or ripped apart, but this was a first an innocent children were so brutally murdered. It sent chills down her spine as she spotted dark long hair sprout from the mix of meat.

    The sight disgusted Maka to the core. So brutally and feverishly and sadistically killed. The Kishin they had to deal with was sadistic and completely missed a moral compass and empathy for its victims. This Kishin was beyond the normal Kishin Shibusen took care of.

    This was beyond Kid’s suspicion of the Kishin development. This Kishin could be close to Asura’s madness.

    Maka’s eyes settled on the arm sprouting up from the mess of flesh. The arm missed meat at the elbow, which the rats must’ve eaten. In the middle of the arm was a large piece of flesh missing. The edges were ragged and ripped. It was like the skin was forcefully removed, not with a sharp object, but violently pulled from the arm, which would create the irregular oval.

    Now when Maka thought about it, the arm was in a questioning place. If the child had been crushed against the wall and turned into nothing, the remains would be in a perfect pile, but this was spread out and body parts weren’t even close to the anatomy of a human. The head was thrown far away in the corner of the room, the arms were on either side of the two yards mess by the wall while the legs were in the middle. The flesh was spread out as if―

    _CRASH!_

    Maka whirled around toward her partner who had his bag on the circle wall right next to the wooden cart. “Twenty yards.” He spoke soft with his hand still lingering over the surface the short stone wall protected. “This isn’t an ordinary well.”

    “What do you mean?” She cocked her eyebrow and rose on her feet.

    “What I mean is that this well has no water.” Soul explained and retrieved a glow stick from his bag. “Come and see for yourself.”

    Maka approached Soul in the middle of the room where the old cart stood on the railing beside the circle of stone. She came to stand beside him. Soul broke the glove stick in the middle and shook the liquid inside of it and it let out a neon yellow glow. The glow stick left his hand and it fell down in the darkness. Maka counted and it let out the same _crash_ when it hit solid ground. Twenty yards down, just like Soul said. The stick softly radiated at the bottom of the well along with the other glow stick he dropped earlier. She could clearly see solid ground just like the ground they stood on.

    “You’re right.” Maka spoke and redirected her gaze to her partner. “There is no water at the bottom.”

    “But was this a well to begin with? There is no bucket left behind or a system for hoisting up water. Maybe this hole was an accident and instead of covering it up they made a fence around it?”

    Maka’s eyebrows narrowed quizzically as she stared down into the hole as far as her headlamp would allow. “I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “The hole is perfectly straight down and far too round to be an accident. I think they made this hole intentionally.”

    “But w―”

    Wood splinters went flying and Soul and Maka were forced to cover their heads with their arms. Dust rose and a deep hoarse roar echoed violently in the crossroad of doors. Maka’s stomach twisted with shock mixed with fear, but this was not a time to let fear feast on her sanity.

    “Soul!” Soul was already on it. He brightened before she could finish her sentence and he landed comfortably in her hand a moment later. Instantly their souls connected and a slight resonance was the beginning.

    The dust slowly settled and the silhouette cleared. In front of them stood a large beast made of various parts of various creatures. The beast legs were dark and hairy and instead of feet, the beast had hooves like a horse or a donkey. The creature’s hind legs changed into human upper body with ripped muscles and dirtied skin mixed with dried blood at the waist of the body. From the human hands of the beast sprouted long dark nails that could sever the minerals surrounding them just as easily the thick wooden doors crumbled from its power. From the neck and above was the head of a lion. Fangs sharper than her partner’s and fur matching its hind legs. Long hair grew from the beast’s neck and head and large dark ears peeked from the bloodied fur. In the darkness, the beast’s golden eyes stared into their very souls with the intention of eating their souls.

    _“That’s him.”_ Soul spoke through their resonance. _“That must be the Kishin.”_

    Maka confirmed by tightening her grip on her weapon.

    The beast roared loudly and shook the very ground they stood on. The creature leaped toward them and the beast’s nails clashed with the metal of Soul. The beast’s nostrils flared loudly as it rapidly and crazily crashed its sharp claws at them.

    Soul spun in Maka’s expert hands and blocked every attack of the crazed beast. Her feet constantly changed stance, stepping out of the way of the sharp nails and avoided the wall of the suspicious well. Her feet almost hovered over the ground because of her excellent footwork. Her green eyes registered every move, every movement of the beast’s muscles and carefully calculated every insane step the creature took.

    There!

    The beast stepped forward and at the same time Maka dived for it. She flew passed the beast with momentum and Soul’s sharp blade severed the creature’s hind legs from its torso.

    It didn’t roar. The severed body hit the ground, not a sound was made.

    Maka exhaled with relief and leaned at the stone wall of the well.

    It was finally over.

    _“Wait.”_

    Maka’s eyes snapped opened and the lower part of the creatures body suddenly heaved up on its legs. The upper body levitated up from the ground and the creature’s arms hung lifelessly as the wounded parts touched. Instantly the severed skin morphed together and the fatal wound was completely gone. Hands balled into fists and the creature’s nostrils flared angrily and its eyes were glowing vividly just like before.

    _“How in the world did it do that?”_ Soul spoke slowly and completely amazed at the regeneration of the creature.

    Without even answering, Maka switched her eye sight to her Soul Perception. Her eyes searched the dark space for the beast’s soul, but there was no dark red orb. She knew― she could _hear_ the creature breathing heavily as skin fused together right in front of her. It couldn’t be…

    _“Maka!”_

    Maka switched back to her normal sight just in time to block the beast’s claws. Its weight forced her to find support on the stone wall right behind her. The creature’s body hovered over her and pressed more of its weight on her. The stones behind her cracked and she sunk lower down.

    _“Fuck! Maka get out of there!”_

    She grunted from the weight and more stones broke under her weight. The beast towered over her more and more and the weight grew. The stones cracked repeatedly under her back and in the end she almost laid on the ground with only small stones separating her from the stone ground.

    _“Are you deaf?! Get out of there!”_

    The beast growled loudly and shoved his nails forward instead of down. The change in direction caused Maka to gasp loudly with shock and Soul slipped from her hands and fell down into the well. The resonance between them broke and she saw Soul fall deeper into the suspicious hole.

    “RUUUUN!” Soul screamed from his weapon form as he fell deeper and deeper into the darkness.

    Maka directed her eyes back toward the beast which hovered over her with its arm caging her right side. Just in time she roll out toward the beat’s arm when the five nails plunged into the stones. They cracked as the creature retrieved its nails and stabbed at her again. She rolled at the opposite side and freed herself from the beast’s cage.

    She had to flee and find a way to Soul.

    Instantly her eyes caught the cart beside the mysterious well. A lever sprouted from the side of the old cart. She leaped to the side and dodged the creature’s attack and dived for the cart. She gripped the old lever and used all her might to unlock the cart. The level shrieked loudly as it slowly budged.

    The creature roared and swung its nails at her. A gasp tore her throat as she ducked and the nails tore the side of the cart open and the lever in the process. She cursed mentally and leaped at the Kishin. She used her hand as support when she kicked the beast in the stomach. Even though the beast was larger in both weight and length, Maka successfully managed to get the creature to backpedal two steps backwards. It gave her enough time to direct her attention back toward the cart. With a powerful kick, the lever hit the end and the cart’s wheels were free and rolling slowly toward the busted door. The beast roared loudly as Maka’s hands contacted with the rusty metal and pushed the cart to gain momentum.

    “I’ll come back for you!” Maka yelled before she jumped into the cart and it speeded out of the crossroad of wooden doors with the beast chasing her.

 

…

 

Soul’s heart beat in his throat. Chills ran down his spine in his weapon form and he felt the fear nibbling at their bond. He fell down the hole and as the distance grew larger, it felt like his very soul was ripped from his form when their resonance broke.

    He heard her. He heard the monster. He heard stones cracking and could see stones follow him down into the dark.

    The darkness grew denser and his blade stabbed into the ground next to a wooden bucket with rotten rope pooling around it and an old pickaxe. As soon as he hit the bottom, he transformed back into his human form and his surroundings brightened and his flashlight lightened up his vision.

    “Maka! He exclaimed toward the hole in the ceiling he fell from. “You got to run! I’ll find you!” He didn’t receive a reply.

    Soul bit his lower lip and balled his fists.

    Damn.

    He was a terrible weapon. A poor excuse of a Death Scythe.

    Soul shook his head rapidly and his knuckles turned paler.

    No. He couldn’t be thinking like that. He’s to find Maka. Without him she’s in danger. Her not wielding him could end badly for both of them. Being separated from one another is their greatest weakness. Without him, she couldn’t fight. Without her… he was―

    Something prickled the back of his head and he whirled around. His right arm transformed into his scythe blade, ready to attack. The light from his flashlight exposed nothing behind him, but the prickling feeling at the back of his head still remained. His left hand ran through his hair but he was only met with his thick hair and hair products. Not the undefined object that still prickles his mind.

    The light of his lamp exposed dark lines on the wall right at the mouth of another corridor. The lines created the symbol of Lord Death, but an X was drawn over it. The light of his lamp wandered over the surface around the skull and the word _LIAR_ was written large and bold, almost as if the writer was in a hurry and driven to write it rapidly.

    His eyes narrowed and he fisted his hair just above the prickling sensation at the back of his head.

    What was going on?

 

…

 

A scrapped knee and bruised palms. She’d gained the wounds when she jumped off the cart and saw it dive into a dark pit where it loudly hit the ground. She paid no heed to her wounds. Quickly she threw herself into another corridor and turned off her flashlight and she was left in the dark.

    Her right knee pulsed with pain and warm liquid trickled down her leg and down into her boot.

    The rapid heavy footsteps of the beast echoed painfully throughout the mine. For every collision of the beast’s feet, she flinched and automatically she covered her mouth. The white gloves of hers were damaged and she tasted salt and copper. Even though darkness was everything she saw, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut as the beast grew closer and closer and closer. The footsteps grew louder and louder and she felt the ground she sat curled up on shake for every crash the beast’s feet made. Her heart was going haywire and fear ran through her body like poison.

    Without her weapon… what could she do?

    She desperately craved for her partner’s soul, but in the darkness she felt none. Not even a glimmer of his soul. Not even his presence.

    The sudden separation from her partner watered the seed of fear in her belly and for every step of the creature, it would grow. Grow larger and larger until her body was paralyzed with fear.

    The creature was right by the mouth of the corridor she sought for cover. The beast flared its nostrils and breathed heavily. Under its breath it growled predatorily.

    Her heart stopped.

    _Go away… go away… please go away_

    The beast took a footstep. Toward the hallway. Where she was hiding. She held her breath as the creature stomped toward her. She was curled up on the ground and the beast stomped up toward her and came to a stop in front of her. She could hear the heavy and fast breathing and the grinding of its teeth.

    She was going to die alone in an abandoned mine and no one would ever find her. She would be torn apart like the little kids and the beast would devour her soul. Oh no.

    The beast let out a loud roar and Maka’s body tensed. The creature stomped away and its steps quieter and it eventually grew silent.

    Maka finally turned on her headlamp after a few minutes had passed by since the stomps disappeared.

    That creature… it was nothing her and Soul had faced before. A creature without a soul. How could something wander around alive and breathing without a soul? Kid might be new at the job of being Lord Death, but she’s sure he would _never in a million years_ grant a body with the gift of life, especially a creature as that.

    She shook her head and grabbed a hold of the hem of her shirt. The fabric broke from the meisters strength and she tore a piece from it. She made quick work of the cloth and tied it around her wounded knee. That would have to do for now. When she joined up with Soul again, she could start worrying about her wounded knee and scrapped hands.

    As much as she wanted to scream and holler Soul’s name, hoping for him to respond, she couldn’t. With them being separated, they’re both in great danger. Finding each other quietly was the only option for both―

    Maka’s hand flung to the back of her head, but she caught nothing. The back of her head prickled with a weird sensation. Like her skin was irritated because of an intruder. Her hand continued to search for the object of her annoyance, but her hand only found hair. Her eyebrows narrowed and her other hand joined the search.

    The weird sensation was indeed odd. It wasn’t caused by outside sources. It was like her head was a wall and something was drilling itself through it.

    This could only mean the sensation wasn’t solid.

    Now she could feel it. The presence at the back of her head. The presence, _the_ _intruder_ , wanting to break into her mind. Wanting to take over her mind. Bloodlust oozed off the back of her mind and the intruder started to impatiently beat against the wall of sanity inside of her mind.

    A slight smirk grew on her face.

    There was no way she could be taken over.

    Powerfully she let her Grigori soul repel the madness and it was swung away from the wall of Maka’s sanity and the bloodlust was gone within seconds.

    She’d to find Soul. Quickly.

    Maka ran along the tracks as silently as she could. The light of her headlamp searched her surroundings for any sign of the creature. She found her way back to the four door room with the well in the middle. She came to a halt in front of the well and quickly she shook off her backpack.

    Being a meister taught her a valuable lesson. Time. Time was something valuable. One second you could be alive and well, and the other you could be dead. Every second counted and she had to go down the well and find her partner as soon as she could. He could be in danger and Maka needed to get to him fast. He couldn’t die on her. He couldn’t. He simply couldn’t. Maka wouldn’t allow it!

    She quickly fished up the rope from her bag and found the end. She tied a hard knot around the track and threw down the rest of the rope into the well. Hopefully it would be long enough for her to find the ground without hurting herself.

    Maka swung her bag on her shoulders again and grabbed a hold of the rope with both of her bruised hands. She tugged at the rope and the track or the knot didn’t budge. Good. Her feet supported on the wall of the well and she started to descend. Instantly her hands started to throb with pain and her teeth bit down into her lower lip. She couldn’t think about the pain.

    As she climbed down the wall, she switched to her Soul Perception and there was nothing. No Soul. At this point, she couldn’t feel his presence in her mind. She _should_ be able to feel him. She _should_ be able to see his soul. She’d searched and found Chrona across the world, so why couldn’t she find her partner, the one she was connected to the most? The mountain walls couldn’t possibly be messing with her Soul Perception or―

    She came to a stop and she switched back to her ordinary sight.

    Maka reached out toward the wall and she ran her finger over the surface before she brought it to her nostrils. It smelled bitter and it irritated her nose. It was salt. No doubt in her mind.

    She’d heard tales. Ghost stories in particular. If you came across a spirit or ghost, to drive away the spiritual creature, you’d throw salt at them. Maka’d always thought of it as a hoax since she dealt with souls on a regular basic and never had salt done any good, or limited her Soul Perception. The salt in the cafeteria never hindered her from seeing clearly when she secretly spied at clingy girls longing for her weapon.

    Then again, she’d never been surrounded by salt. The ground and walls and the ceilings were all made of salt and she was deep inside of the mine. She’d hundreds of ton salt around her. She’d never been in a mine― a salt mine and tried her Soul Perception.

    This meant she was as blind as her weapon.

    She continued to climb deeper and deeper and the hole above her grew smaller and smaller. Her hands burned with pain and her muscles craved for a break. A grunt of labour escaped her throat and her hands gripped the rope even tighter.

    _Stomp!_

    It couldn’t be.

    _Stomp!_

    Maka’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. Her right hand immediately flung to her headlamp. Her hand desperately searched for the _OFF_ button and every time she’d get a hold of it, her hand would tremble and it was gone again. She inhaled deeply and she managed to turn the switch off. The dense darkness covered her from the beast as its stomps only grew nearer.

    _Don’t find me_. Maka squeezed her eyes shut to control her own darkness as she hung from her rope in the well. _Please go away. Please, please, please_. Maka chanted to herself as the stomps came to an end. She held her breath as her hands tightened on the rope.

    Her eyes snapped open automatically and she let out a shriek of surprise when she found herself falling down into the darkness.


	4. Level Three

**Below**

_Level Three_

 

Maka gasped and sat straight up in her bed. Her spine completely straight and all her muscles tense as if a foe would knock her out of bed. Sweat trickled down her forehead and she’d a death grip on her blanket pressed against her chest. Her breath was ragged and slowly she came to recognize the yellow curtains framing her window and her window, her pink wallpapers and her purple closet.

    Her grip on her blanket loosened and she ran her hand through her damp bangs.

    A dream.

    It was just a nightmare. A terrible nightmare.

    Her heart raced in her chest, threatened to break her ribs like a sledgehammer. The blanket slipped from her hands and she slumped back on her comfortable bed. Relief sunk in but she couldn’t quite relax. Fatigue still weight down her body and the reality of her nightmare still lingered in her mind.

    The knob turned and her door swung open, revealing her partner in his orange shirt and black pants. He was already dressed and― what was it she smelled? Pancakes perhaps?

    “Breakfast is soon ready.” He spoke.

    “O-okay. Just give me a minute.” Maka smiled strained toward her partner as she tried to cover her sweaty forehead with her arm.

    As her partner, he cocked his eyebrow and gazed at her with worry. “You okay? You look… edgy.”

    “O-oh.” She sat up on her bed and immediately started to shake her head. “I-I’m fine. I only had a scary dream. That’s all.”

    Soul released the doorknob and strolled across the room and took a seat on the edge of her bed. “You sure? You look pretty shaken up.”

    “Y-yeah.” Maka nodded weakly. “The dream just lingers. You know.”

    “… Okay.” Soul stood up from the bed and he reached out to her, placing his hand gently on her shoulder. His warm and large hand banned the remaining sensation of her nightmare. Only he, her partner and best friend could give her this sensation. Her heart tumbled in her chest with comfort and familiarity. Soul was always so… so… safe.

    “If you want to talk about it, you know I’m here, right?”

    A smile spread on her face and her own hand joined on top of his. “I know.”

    Their hands stayed entwined and they simply stared into each other’s eyes. “Don’t take too long or breakfast will get cold.” Their hands slipped and Soul left her room, closing the door behind him.

 

**…**

Maka groaned in pain and her eyes fluttered open only to be met with darkness. Her hand groggily slipped over her face until she found the button on her headlamp and turned it on. She pressed her hands to the ground and she heaved herself up in a sitting position. Her back screamed in pain and she hissed loudly, slumping back on the ground on broken wooden pieces and rotten rope.

    Her head was killing her. The back of her head throbbed with great pain and the little her headlamp brightened up was spinning.

    She recalled the stomps from the creature then suddenly silence to then finding herself falling freely through the darkness with her rope in her hand.

    How far had she fallen?

    She groaned again and covered her eyes with her arm.

    A very long fall according to her bruised head. She must’ve received a concussion. She was lucky she was alive. Who knew how long she’d been out?

    She rolled onto her stomach and the wooden pieces under her cracked and she laid on the bare floor of the salt mine. Another hiss of pain left her throat and her hand carefully ran over her back in search for the wounded area. Her right side of her waist didn’t react to her touch, but her left side did.

    “Fuck.” She panted when the tips of her fingers ran over the bruised side of hers. Lucky her. She hadn’t broken a rib. Only severely bruised her waist.

    The ground was comfortable for her sore muscles and throbbing back and head. It was almost more appealing to her than her own bed in Nevada’s desert. Her body screamed― no, _begging_ for more rest.

    As much as she wanted to drift back into unconsciousness, she had to find her partner. She had to find S―

    “…Soul?” Maka muttered and lifted her head slightly from the ground. In the dark she detected another light which didn’t come from her headlamp. She heaved herself up from the ground and bit her lower lip in pain. “Soul?” Her light found the source of the other lamp and it was attached to Soul’s head like she last saw it.

    “Soul!” Maka exclaimed and quickly stumbled over a pickaxe toward him as she held her bruised side. “Thank _death_ I found you.” She tackled into his side and wrapped her arm around his waist. She buried her face in his leather jacket and inhaled the strong scent of _Soul_. But he didn’t react. Not vocally, physically or by his soul. “Soul…?” She removed her face from his jacket and went around him. “Are you okay?” Her hand settled on his chest and she’s one-hundred percent sure the headlamp blinded him because on the surface, he reacted when he turned on her lamp, but now he didn’t react at all, and it should’ve been more than before!

    “What has gotten into you?” Her hand fisted his leather jacket and she shook him. “Soul! SOUL!” His eyes were blank, staring off toward the wall absentmindedly like he was a zombie. “What is wrong with y―”

    Child laughter echoed through the mine. A light and amused giggle. Maka wiped her head around and her headlamp lit up a small child walking toward them. Short cut black hair as coal and wearing a dark green surgery dress with blood dried on the fabric. Blue veins were visible on the corpse white skin and eyes almost white only exception is a very light shade of grey where the irises are. The boy’s exposed legs were dirtied with blood and mineral and his feet were dark and bare. His face and hair had dried blood on.

    Her hand automatically abandoned Soul’s chest and entwined with his limp hand.

    The kid continued to giggle as he neared them.

    Maka’s stomach twisted― and it wasn’t with pain. She’d a bad feeling about this kid. His eyes were blank, but they contained bloodlust and hunger for skin tearing and blood splattering on every surface in the mine.

    Soul suddenly took a step forward the kid and his hand slipped from hers. “Soul?” He didn’t respond. Instead he lit up and transformed into his weapon form, but he didn’t land in her hands.

    The little boy reached out with his hand and Soul landed just as elegantly as he did with her.

    “What the hell Soul!” Maka exclaimed and backpedalled away from them. “What are you doing?!”

    Something was terribly wrong! Was Soul being controlled?!

    The little boy giggled like a maniac and leaped toward her with Soul high in the air. Maka gasped and stumbled toward the side. Her bruised side demanded to be felt and she hissed in pain. “Soul! Snap out of it!”

    The boy swung Soul around recklessly at her and all she could do was try to dodge her partner. Her head still pulsed with pain and her disorientated vision made it difficult for her to avoid the blade of her partner. The young boy in front of her appeared to be death itself with his ghostly pale skin that could rival death itself. How could a boy who looked like a corpse be alive and well?

    Eerily the eye on the scythe stared off blankly just as before which gave Maka the chills. When she wielded him, his eye would still reflect concentration, worry, fear or cockiness. For her to see nothing. No emotions. No movement. It terrified her. And for him to be used in such a way twisted her heart with hurt―

    Her partner cut into her left bicep and she let out a chocked cry of pain. Warm liquid immediately gushed out from her new wound. Clumsily she tripped on something and hit the ground, barely dodges her partner’s razor sharp blade. Twisted in her ankles, her eyes locked on an old pickaxe. Quickly she grabbed it and jumped up on her feet.

    She had to get her partner back. For every time she called his name, she received no reaction. He didn’t move in the boy’s hand and so didn’t his soul. She didn’t want to hurt her partner, but she had to defend herself without causing any harm to her partner, which would be impossible with the blunt pickaxe.

    Her body grew heavier and heavier to move and her movements grew slower. Her reaction slower and she didn’t have time to block his attacks every time with the pickaxe. Her partner cut her. The scythe would easily slip pass her poor defence and cut her. Her arms, legs and when his blade cut her already bruised side, she yelped loudly in pain and stumbled backwards.

    The little boy took the opportunity and planted his tiny foot in her stomach. With inhumanly strength, she was thrown across the corridor twenty yards away and she collided with the wall. Stones cracked under her back and her skull gave out a nasty crack of bones and new blood poured down her head. The pickaxe slipped effortlessly from her hands as she slowly slid to the stone floor.

    She was barely conscious. Her vision was a blur and she only saw the green robe of his moving toward her and the red and grey colours of her partner.

    “Soul.” His name left her lips and she tried to focus on her dear partner. Her side was killing her. Her head was killing her. Every fibre of her body either screamed in pain or exhaustion.

    Something was terribly wrong with her partner. His consciousness was sealed away and used for the little boy’s liking. Whatever was wrong with her partner, she should be able to see.

    Her vision darkened into her Soul Perception and instantly her Soul Perception flickered like an old and damaged TV. She grunted and her fist tightened in pain for every painful flicker of her Soul Perception. Even her Soul Perception was damaged from the hit.

    She couldn’t care about the pain. Not now not ever. She directed her eyes toward the direction of the little boy and just like the beast, she couldn’t see a red, blue or purple soul in his chest. The only soul she could see was of her partner. She could see the back of his soul was worms or maybe threads sucked to his soul and wiggled enthusiastically.

    She’d experienced it before. When the creature disappeared. The prickling feeling at the back of her head. Had the same thing happened to her weapon, except the madness overtook him?

    A pained cry left her throat when her Soul Perception flickered and failed her. Her vision went back to normal and she saw the little boy standing in front of her with her partner pulled backwards.

    It was the only clue she had.

    Her partner’s scythe swung forward and dug into her chest right between her ribs. A chocked cry left her lips and she grabbed a hold of the grey shaft and tugged it toward her. She groaned in pain as the blade dug deeper into her and she powerfully forced her soul at her partner.

    “Soul.”  Maka coughed up blood and breathed heavily. “Feel my soul.”

    The instant her soul caressed his, it fluttered and the unknown wavelength feasting on her partner’s sanity shrieked and wormed madly in pain―

    Her vision was replaced and the mine was suddenly gone. She stood in the middle of a dark forest with thick tree trunks and green leaves surrounding her. Her gaze moved to her unharmed hands and body. Her wounds were fully healed and her clothes were whole and cleaned, not a single blood drop stained her body.

    “Little brother!” She spun around on her feet and saw two young boys with the same jet black hair. The older boy clung onto a younger version of himself who was bloody and had a fatal wound on his chest between his ribs. Tears poured down the older boy’s face and landed on the obviously dead boy.

    “You can’t be dead!” The older boy bawled his eyes out and snot ran down his lips. His hands tightened on the younger boy’s body. “Curse you Shibusen!” The older boy howled to the laughing moon above them as his dark eyebrows narrowed furiously. “I’ll destroy all of y―”

    As quickly as the vision appeared, it disappeared and the eye on the blade fluttered. The worms on her partner’s soul repelled and the eye on the scythe quickly went from confused to uncensored horror and fright.

    “MAKAAAA!” He let out a scream of undeniable and pure fear. The weapon lit up and the blade was pulled out of her and instead arms wrapped around her shoulders. “Maka! Maka! Talk to me! Don’t close your eyes!” Words were thrown at her like a machinegun as his fingers desperately dug into her skin as if she would leave him.

    She’d done it. She’d freed her partner.

    She let out a chocked cry off pain at her wound in her chest.

    But it came to a price.

    Maka coughed up blood on her partner’s jacket as he clung onto her. “Take us…” She inhaled deeply and rested her forehead against his chest. “… away.”

    The young boy laughed manically and Maka barely noticed the fist coming right at them, but Soul already rolled them away from the danger and he lit up again and changed into his weapon form.

    “Come on Maka, you got to hold onto me, okay?” Soul instructed through gritted teeth.

    She clung onto his shaft as well as she could with one hand. Her wound on her chest ached painfully at the position, but she had to pull through. She signalled her partner with a squeeze and wings sprouted from the end and the blade shrunk. The young boy jumped into the air and spun with his heel ready for impact. The heel dug into the ground Soul and Maka were on a millisecond again and they flew away from the little boy, deeper into the salt mine.

    _“Hold on.”_ His voice was shaky with raw panic and fear. Soul soared quicker than ever before through the corridors. The wind cooled her hot throbbing wound and made it difficult for her to cling onto his shaft. Her hand tightened as much as her body allowed her. Soul felt her ongoing struggle to hold on and automatically he slowed down slight, which pained him to take it easy when she was in such a critical condition.

    Soul turned into new corridors repeatedly. His eyes caught sight of wooden door and immediately he flew over there, transformed into his human form and caught Maka in his arms. Carefully he clung to her with one hand and a scythe sprouted from his wrist. He hadn’t time to open the door, he simply sliced diagonally and kicked the piece in before he entered the room with his meister in his arms.

    “Listen to my voice, okay? You can’t close your eyes.” His voice cracked at the end when he carefully laid her on the ground.

    Maka’s breath was ragged and heavy. Her vision was completely blurred out and she only caught sight of his orange shirt and the light from his headlamp. A green shine soon followed, but her sleepy mind couldn’t detect what it was exactly. Her eyelids were as heavy as an elephant and all she wanted was to go to sleep. To simply sleep off the pain and rest her sore body, but she knew too well, with the wounds she received, if she fell asleep there would be no more Death City. No more laughing with her friends. No more cosy movie nights with her weapon and no more them cuddled up on their far too small couch.

    A world without her dear weapon wasn’t a life she wanted to be a part of.

    “Breathe… you… better.” His voice was a distant noise she could barely cling onto. It was as if he spoke to her through a filter and she had her back toward him. The green light mixed with orange blurred all together and darkness invaded her vision.

    So… this was it…?

    “… Maka.”

    Her partner. Her beloved partner. She would wait for him on the other side. She would patiently wait on the other side until Kid collected Soul’s soul and she sincerely hoped for his sake she’d wait a very long time. Maka would wait forever for him if it came down to it. She would forever wait for her beloved partner.

    “Maka.”

    He took countless of hits for her. He reduced her falls, fought for her and most importantly, he took a lethal attack that almost took his life. All of that for her. His loyalty to her was touching. Heart-warming. It would always make her stomach twirl like a ballerina and her fingers to tingle sweetly. The last thing she could do for her weapon was show loyalty to him and wait f―

    Her cheek suddenly stung painfully and her head whipped to the side. The darkness was repelled from her like two magnets and her weapon came into view. He was slightly blurry, but she could make out his sharp and wide facial features and the gorgeous red eyes of his.

    “Don’t you dare die on me.”

    Her eyes stayed half-lidded as her brain processed what happened. “Did you… slap me?” Her left cheek still tingled from the contact of his hand.

    A large smirk grew on his face and he bared his sharp teeth. “Keep your eyes open this time.” His hand travelled down to her stomach and parted the torn shirt of hers. “The wound is healing effectively but you should stay awake… just until it’s fully healed.”

    Her eyes fluttered at her partner as he gently lifted her head and shoved his blood-stained jacket under her head. She hadn’t even noticed when he took his jacket off and left him only in his orange shirt. Also stained with her blood.

    Her head throbbed with pain. Excruciating pain beyond any headache she’d experienced before. Limply her head rolled to the side and the headlamp of hers exposed the round bottle with red liquid. Of course that was the way he saved her. She almost forgot about the healing serum. It’s the first time they ever had to use it.

    Soul’s hands returned to her stomach and he gazed at the wound that once was on her stomach. “The wound isn’t fatal anymore.” He released her shirt and grabbed the round bottle. “It should heal properly.” He unscrewed the feather top and retrieved a pipette with red liquid inside. With care he guided the tool toward her head, afraid he’d spill a precious drop before he squeezed the feather on the top and a drop hit on Maka’s forehead. Instantly the drop was absorbed by her skin and immediately she felt the headache reduce. “You must be exhausted. You can go to sleep.”

    “Can I?” Her eyelids were heavy. Heavy as trucks. There was nothing more she wanted than to sleep, but could she? They were still in the mine and one of the monster or the child could appear.

    “Absolutely.” He returned the pipette to the bottle and screwed it tightly so no liquid would escape. He moved the headlamp away from his forehead so he wouldn’t blind his meister. His other hand moved to her cheek and gently cupped it. “You’ve nothing to worry about. The weapon protects his meister, right?”

    The corner of her lip twitched. “Riiiight…” Her weapon wanted her to sleep, her body desperately begged her for sleep, there was no use denying herself of the privilege of sleep. “Just wake me up if the monster appears, okay?”

    Soul nodded. “Of course.”

    Maka was out like a light with her weapon’s hand still on her cheek.

 

…

 

Maka sighed and got dressed in her skirt, white shirt, yellow vest and her green tie. She looked into her mirror on the wall as she brushed her blond hair before she tied her hair into pigtails. Her reflection stared back at her as her hands dropped down from her pigtails.

    Today was their first mission in a long time. Kid had assigned them to travel to a small mountain city to investigate a Kishin-active area. Many children had disappeared into thin air and their job was to track down the Kishin and take care of it. Easy. Nothing too complicated. They could take the night flight back to Death City and report back to Kid.

    Her eyes abandoned the reflection and she strolled to her door, opening it.

    She saw her partner standing by the stove with a bottle of syrup in his hand. His head was down and he poured the syrup over the pancakes.

    “It smells amazing.” Maka commented as she took her usual seat at their table.

    Her partner put down the bottle, turned away from the stove with two plates of pancakes in each hand. He strolled to the table and put her plate in front of her before he set his own down.

    The pancakes were nicely fried and stacked into a neat pile with syrup elegantly poured over them. If they weren’t in their apartment and she didn’t know her partner made them, she would’ve definitely thought they were made by a professional chef at a nice restaurant.

    “Thanks.” Soul took his seat in front of her. “I took the time to make them from scratch.”

    “Really?” A smile spread on her face as she picked up her silverware. She sunk her fork into the top pancake and received a nice crunching sound. “Who are you and what did you do to my partner?”

    He chuckled heartily and shoved a piece of pancake into his mouth. “I couldn’t really sleep. Thought I might as well get up and do something productive.” He spoke as he chewed.

    “My question still stands.” Her eyebrow twitched with annoyance as her partner disgustingly and unmannerly sunk his fork into the pancakes and lifted them. “You know it’s rude talking with your mouth full.” Syrup stuck to his lips and chin as he took  large bites and chewed loudly simply to annoy her some more. It did irritate her greatly, but at the same time she was a little relieved. When they were out dining with their friends, his Evans manners showed through his elegant use of silverware and excellent conduct, but when they’re alone in the comfort of their home, he relaxes and let himself be at ease around her. Even though in their younger days his mask of cool was more strained and controlled than it is to date, he still liked keeping up a front and keeping people at an arm’s length away. Only she and their closest friends were allowed in his personal space.

    A grin spread on his face, revealing pieces of pancake mushed at his teeth.

    “You’re disgusting.”

    “And you’re flat.”

    “You miss a brain.”

    “Is that all you got?”

    “No even close Mr. Pretend.”

    A tiny smile stretched over Maka’s face as she quickly shoved a piece of pancake into her mouth in order to hide her amusement. Her partner was the most observant person she knew and she knew in the bottom of her heart her partner had already picked up on it.

    Her partner. Her caring and loyal and devoted partner. The depth of his devotion was remarkable. He proved to her over and over again throughout their years together he was her partner and he had no intentions of _ever_ letting her get hurt on his watch. Chrona. Giriko. His loyalty almost frightened her. For him to willingly throw himself into danger for her terrified her to the core because she knew he would rather throw away his life in order to save hers, but there was a catch; she was defenceless without her weapon. If he recklessly threw away his life, she would be dead only seconds after.

    They were so dependent on each other and even though her partner had only platonic feelings toward her, she’d developed inappropriate feelings that could jeopardize their partnership. Throughout the years when he constantly showed his devotion to her, her feelings only grew and expanded and she could no longer deny her unprofessional feelings toward her best friend.

    She shoved a piece of pancakes inside of her mouth and she gazed at her partner eating his breakfast hungrily like a savage animal. His white hair blessed by the moon and neatly combed into his new hairstyle he discovered after the enthronement ceremony of Kid becoming the new Lord Death Soul started combing his hair instead of using his hair gel and styling it into the wild mess she was used with.

    His deep red eyes were focused on his breakfast as he cut through the pancakes and put a forkful in his mouth, chewing loudly.

    He looked good.

    His eyes abandoned his plate and stared right back at her. Instantly she jumped in her seat in shock and diverted her eyes back on her almost finished breakfast. Her face heated up and she thrust a piece of pancake in her mouth.

    “You okay?”

    She inhaled and smiled wide before she met her partner’s eyes, but the poor façade immediately shattered when her eyes met his.

    She can’t keep her feelings a secret. Not anymore. Not when she’s feeling this strongly about her partner. For every passing day, her feelings for her partner only grew and being only his friend frustrated her. Every day jealousy would clawed at her sanity when she heard girls gossip about her partner’s looks, left partnership requests in his locker and unashamedly flirting their behinds off. She couldn’t stand it when her partner would leave her to meet up with girls who obviously either wanted to ask him for a date, or his hand in partnership. Her partner always said no, but it still left her jealous, overprotected and she hated the sick feeling of doubt and fear demanding to be felt in the core of her soul.

    She desired more of her partner and she couldn’t simply stand by and missing her chance at maybe, just maybe, becoming something more. It was either sink or swim for her feelings. Either way would be better than to constantly walk around in limbo.

    “No.” She confessed and her smile fell. “The nightmare I had… It makes me think of the worst.”

    He lowered his silverware and rested his elbows on the table, leaning forward a little. He patiently waited for her to continue her story at her own pace.

    “It’s just… I dreamt ab―”

    The familiar soft melody of the mirror in their living room sounded and rippled.

    Soul sighed and closed his eyes. “We’ll talk later.” He opened his eyes and she nodded in reply. She watched her partner disappear around the corner into their living room to answer Kid’s call.

 

…

 

A yawn escaped Maka’s lips and she opened her eyes to the view of her partner right above her. Her head was no longer on Soul’s jacket, but on his warm lap and his hand played with her right pigtail. His headlamp was no longer on his forehead, but on the ground and shut off. Only the green light from a glow stick illuminated the lar― tiny space around her. Above her was old wood, not high enough to offer her partner enough space to sit with a straight back. Where were they and how come she didn’t wake up when he moved her?

    “Where are we?” She hadn’t noticed it but now, her throat was drier than the desert they live in and her voice sounded like she had a cup of gravel in her throat.

    His eye’s fluttered and he looked down at his meister. “I carried you under one of the tables. A monster got too close and I wanted us to stay out of sight.”

    Her eyes widened larger than she’d been able for many hours. “You told me you w―”

    “Wake you up? I solved this dilemma by hiding under the table. And we’re lucky the Kishin isn’t able to sense souls or else we would’ve been busted.”

    “It’s not a Kishin, Soul.” She gazed into his eyes. “The monster and the child didn’t have any souls. There is no way someone could move or even _breathe_ without a soul.”

    Soul cocked his eyebrow and tilted his head. “What? Could Kid―”

    “Absolutely not.” Soul curled Maka’s pigtail around his index finger. “Kid does his job as well as he can and he might struggle sometimes, but he would _never_ miss collecting _two souls._ ” Maka paused. “Do you remember the fight with that beast?”

    “Yeah. The asshole separated us.” Soul’s tone hardened and his leisurely twirling of her hair came to an end.

    “No. Not that.”

    “Yeah, I knew that.”

    Maka rolled her eyes at her partner’s obvious lie and the flustered look in his eyes. “Right. Sure. But we cut the beast into two pieces and it healed together effortlessly. The way the hips and torso mended together was… strange beyond belief. It was like the two parts gained new life.”

    “What are you suggesting? Is the thing empowered with witchcraft? Could it be another Medusa or Arachne?”

    “I don’t know. The Kishin could’ve originally been a witch who controls the beast and the kid.”

    “Hold on. A witch?” Soul’s eyebrows narrow. “I thought Shibusen took care of all rogue witches and why would a witch abandon their way now when it’s peace between Shibusen and the witches?”

    Maka’s own eyebrows narrowed and created a wrinkle on her dirtied forehead. “Maybe just because _it is peace._ ” But would a witch really? “But I don’t think it is a witch.”

    “Huh?” His white eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “What? What else would’ve devoured souls and brutally murdered children for their own entertainment?” Soul paused and he released her pigtail. “Maka, I saw something when we were separated. I saw Kid’s skull but with an X over it. All around it was _liar_ written. Obviously the one behind this hates Shibusen. A witch would be perfect.”

    “I…” Her eyes avoided her partner’s blazing red eyes in the dim green light under the table. “I just can’t see a witch doing this because this is a salt mine. Salt erases magic and weakens soul bonds.” Her eyes connected with her partner. “You felt it too, right?” Maka remembered the moment too well. Pressed against the wall completely paralyzed with fear for not being able to feel her dear weapon at the back of her head.

    Soul’s lips tightened and his eyebrows became one, even his thighs her head rested on were tense with the memory of their sudden and forceful and violent separation straight out from a nightmare scenario.

    “Yeah.” He growled. “But I thought that was only a hoax ripped off from a ghost story. Is it really true?”

    “It must. That’s the only conclusion I can come up with.”

    “But if it is salt, then how could a witch― _anyone_ control the monsters? A puppeteer would use a bond like ours with the puppet, right? How could that be possible?”

    Soul had a point. How would someone be able to control a puppet with the large masses of salt surrounding them? Only a thin wall of the minerals would cancel the bond. The puppeteer clearly wasn’t present during neither of the fights, so how was it possible? Soul and Maka had the most incredible bond in the whole academy and theirs broke as soon as Soul tumbled down the well. _If_ it was a puppeteer, then the bond between the puppets and the puppeteer must be beyond their imagination.

    “Man.” He sighed and ran his hand through his dirty hair. “This is even more complicated than the fight on the moon. We stood against Chrona and Asura and now we’re up against a puppet master with powers beyond comprehend.”

    “Hey.” Maka reached up toward her partner and gently cupped his cheek. A small smile stretched over her face. “We pulled through and managed to defeat Asura. And _we will_ save Chrona. He understood in the end and he’s waiting for us. I know we’ll survive this and I know we’ll save Chrona.”

    Soul sighed heavily and his fingertips brushed her shoulder softly. “First we’ve to eliminate the Kishin and make sure these puppets aren’t used again. Then we’ve to find a way out of here.” He faced away from her.

    “And we will.” Maka placed her slightly wounded hand above his. Instantly his attention was back on her and she smiled toward him reassuringly. “As long as we stick around the elevator shaft, we’ve nothing to worry about and if we have to, we’ll bust our way out of h―”

    Maka’s stomach started to growl just at the climax of her speech. Playing it smooth and cool like her partner would was simply not in the cards for her.

    Soul chuckled and gave her hands a squeeze. “We’re lucky you packed food.”

    Carefully he moved her head away and reached for Maka’s bag as she heaved herself up into a sitting position beside her partner. To her relief, her stomach didn’t scream with pain. Her fingers moved away the torn fabric and touched her now healed skin and only a scar remained on her well-trained abs.

    “We’re lucky you decided to bring with you snacks.” Soul fished up a bottle of water and handed it to Maka before he grabbed a bottle for himself. Her hand tightened on the cork of her bottle, instantly her hand flared up with pain and she couldn’t help but to flinch, which her loyal partner picked up immediately on.

    “Are your hands hurt?” He lowered his bottle and put it down on the ground.

    “Y-yeah.” Her lowered the bottle and exposed her left hand to her partner. “When I escaped the monster, I bruised my hands. It’s nothing, really―”

    Soul gently grabbed a hold of her hand and the glow stick on the ground. The green light illuminated from the stick was glowing mildly, in a sense, it would’ve been considered romantically if they weren’t currently hiding from the Kishin’s puppets.

    “This needs to be taken care of.” His hands lingered a little more before he released her hand and grabbed the water bottle from her. “We’re lucky we packed a third water bottle.” He unscrewed the cork, cautiously slipped off her gloves not to hurt her. Soul poured the lukewarm water on her hands and earned a hiss and a curse from his meister. He apologized instantly before he grabbed the red first-aid kit from his bag beside him. The hinges on the box shriek loudly and Soul grabbed cotton which he soaked with rubbing alcohol.

    Maka watched her weapon clean her dirtied hands from blood and dirt. A hiss escaped her throat and jaw was tense. Soul made quick work and soon both of her hands were cleaned.

    “Maka.” Soul spoke her name softly. “About the Kishin and the puppets.” He paused and Maka watched Soul grab the ointment and spread some of the cream on his index finger. “There has to be a connection between the Kishin and the puppets that’s stronger than our bond, right?”

    “Correct.” Her partner carefully applies the cream on her wounded hands.

    “And when you looked at the monster’s souls… there was none, right?”

    Maka cocked her eyebrow and gazed at her focused partner working on her hands. “What are you getting at?”

    Soul’s finger slid over the palms of her hands and the cool cream soothed her hands. “There is something you need to see.” Soul spread the last bit of ointment on her palm and wiped the thin layer on his pants. “This won’t be pretty.” He grabbed a flashlight from Maka’s bag. He flipped on the switch but nothing happened. Glass hit the ground right in front of Soul. Broken. He fished another flashlight from her bag and as the first one, it was also broken.

    They must’ve broken when Maka fell from the well.

    He groaned irritated and discarded both flashlights and grabbed one from his bag instead. “Come here.” Maka scooted closer to her weapon as he lit up the flashlight and the space underneath the table was no longer small and comforting. The light illuminated blood dripping down from the edge of the table surface and a small hand limply hung from the side. On the opposite side were two bare legs with blood starting to dry into the skin.

    “Give it to me!” Maka ripped the flashlight from her partner and she moved the hand out of the way and directed the light around the room. Her eyes widened and exposed her whites and veins held her eyes that threatened to leave their sockets.

    The room contained several more tables with wooden benches attached to the table, but it wasn’t the furniture of the underground dining area for the workers that caught her attention. Bodies of small school girls and boys with dark blue jackets and white pants and skirts laid sprawled out on tables, benches and the ground and every surface was stained with blood. Not dark blood like they discovered on the second floor, but blood that still remained somewhat bright with life.

    Her hand on the flashlight shook as the light moved around the room. The light exposed a head of a girl with red hair― blond hair that was caked with blood that coloured her hair crimson. Her eyes were still wide and veins reached for her dark iris. The fear she must’ve felt the moment she died was clear in her eyes, still captured in her orbs which made Maka’s gut twist. In her mouth was a rotten apple and had painfully ripped the corner of her lips open all the way up to her cheekbones. A rat that sat a feet away from the head shrieked loudly when the light exposed it, quickly it escaped the light and disappeared into the dark.

    At the top of the ceiling was a female child hanging from a noose from a crystal chandelier stained with dark blood. Her corpse was already pale and her veins were like dark trails over her whole body.

    “Oh my… death.” Maka whispered and covered her mouth.

    The body was clearly older than the others that scattered the large room. The blood. The eyes. They weren’t killed days ago like on level two. These bodies could’ve been killed merely seconds before they arrived at the mine. If they arrived earlier, she could’ve heard their screams and maybe, just maybe, got to them on time and saved them from a brutal murder from a sadistic and mad Kishin.

    “I checked a few bodies.” Soul spoke. “The bodies were cold but the blood hadn’t dried into the ground. They were probably killed about a few hours ago.”

    His hand laid on hers on the flashlight. His thumb soothingly caressed her gloved-hand before he turned off the flashlight and hid the brutal and ominous scene around them. The green light of the glow stick became their only source of light once again.

    How could she not have scent the blood? Her whole life she’d always been able to sniff out the scent of one drop blood. It didn’t matter if Soul was cooking and he accidentally cut himself on the knife, she always came a moment later, running for a bandage for him. Had being in the mine full with the odour of blood and rotten bodies numbed her sense of smell?

    “You see these children have recently been killed. Maybe right before we arrived or when we just got to the entrance of the mine. There is no way the monsters could’ve walked to the Kishin and delivered the souls.”

    “So what you’re saying is…”

    “That the Kishin sucks the souls out of the monster’s bodies by their bond.”

    “And…”

    “We can find the Kishin with your soul perception. If one of the monsters devours a soul and it travels through the bond then―”

    “No!” Maka exclaimed and directed her eyes from the darkness where she knew the bodies hid. “Are you crazy? We can’t _feed_ a soul to a _Kishin!_ ”

    “I’m not saying we _should_ do it.” Soul quickly defended. “I’m saying there is _an option_ , but of course we can’t do that. It would be going against Shibusen’s standards.”

    They hadn’t found the Kishin. They were deep inside of the salt mine, wounded and their resources were running out.

    The dining area grew quiet and only the sound of Maka’s bag rustled as Soul retrieved another bottle and the four bars she packed. They split the bars and opened the two power bars. Maka took a large bite out of it and tasted the processed chocolate taste along with a touch of caramel.

    She glanced at her partner who stared at his untouched bar before he took a small bite. The last thing they ate was a cheeseburger with fries at the restaurant at the nearby city. They didn’t bring down any clock with them, but she’s sure they’ve been down in the mine for over eight hours. Her partner should be devouring the bar. Something wasn’t right. This mission had proven to be a lot more difficult than Kid explained to them. They were trapped in a mine without knowing the area and without her being able to use her soul perception in order to locate the Kishin, they were at a disadvantage. If Soul’s theory about the transference of souls to the Kishin, it could end the mission earlier before their strength ran out.

    Maka couldn’t even _consider_ the idea. It was immoral and they simply couldn’t _feed_ a soul to one of the monsters.

    Her eyes returned to her bar and she took another bite.

    Even though it was immoral, maybe it was their only chance at finding the Kishin.

    The mine could stretch thousands of miles under the ground. There was no way they could search every corner of it and they couldn’t risk getting lost. Not with the Kishin being able to sneak inside of their minds and take over. She couldn’t let her partner be taken over again.

    Maka closed her eyes and exhaled silently not to gain her partner’s attention.

    Soul meant a lot to her.

    Instantly the memory of their interrupted moment came to her mind. How her own façade crumbled and she _wanted_ to confess her inappropriate feelings. The possibility of the mine being their grave was there and she didn’t want her feelings being unknown.

    “Soul?”

    He turned toward her as he swallowed a piece of his bar. “Yeah?”

    “You know the nightmare I had the day we travelled here?”

    “Yeah.”

    “Is your offer to talk about it still available?”

    He snorted and a hearty low laughter escaped his throat. “It will never be closed.”

    The corner of her mouth twitched and her heart made a summersault in her chest. “I dreamt about you.” She paused, gathering courage to continue. “Death City was burning. Civilianize were caught on fire and running around screaming. We’d been separated and I was desperately looking for you.”

    She remembered everything so well like it was a real memory and it really did take place in Death City. The smell of burned skin and burned hair stung her nostrils as her limbs ran through the streets screaming her throat sore for her partner. All meisters and weapons tried desperately to extinguish the fire. She briefly saw Black*Star use Tsubaki’s shadow in order to gain height as he used a hose to put out a fire. Kilik carried an unconscious man out of a burning house as Liz and Patty led children away from the danger.

    Tears trickled down her own face as she urgently ran toward the location his soul was. She evaded meisters and weapons trying to stop her from entering deeper inside of the city where the fire ruthlessly destroyed everything in its way, but she couldn’t leave her partner. _She had to find him!_

    Fire caught a hold of her long black jacket which she immediately took off and threw into the flames, continuing forward. His soul got closer and closer to her and through the fire she could make out her partner’s white hair.

    She threw herself in between the fire before she rolled on the ground. She’d screamed his name and felt relieved at the sight of him. Alive and breathing. Soul stood in the storm’s eye, where flames surrounded them both and slowly shrunk the space.

    His face was stained with tears and soot from the fire. His usually soft red eyes were wide and filled with horror at her present.

    “You shouldn’t have come here.” He yelled at her as he sunk into the ground. She noticed for the first time the black mass of liquid that produced from the cracks between the cobblestones under Soul’s what was supposed to be feet, but now the mass had devoured him up to his knees.

    He sunk quickly again as if something was pulling him down from the other side of the black liquid. The black liquid sucked further down and came to a stop at his waist. His hands clung onto the cobblestones and his nails dug into the stone for dear life.

    She screamed his name and she threw herself on the ground in front of him. Her hands lashed onto his as he sunk down into the mass and came to a stop just beneath his armpits.

    “You get out of here.” Soul had yelled at her with raw fear in his voice. “Before you’re stuck here and burn to death!”

    “I can’t leave you!” She kept pulling, tugging and ripping at his arms, but he wouldn’t budge in the black mass. The black mass tugged at him and only his face was visible.

    “You got to!” His hands let go of hers, making it impossible for her to hang on when the black liquid made one last tug and he disappeared into it. Only ripples on the black mass was left with her horrifying scream and the flames moving closer to her, but she couldn’t care because she’d lost her partner. Her heart ached painfully and when the flames devoured her, she didn’t feel a thing.

    “I found you… you were stuck in a black pool of liquid.” She closed her eyes and inhaled shakily. Soul put his hand on hers and ran his thumb over her glove. In response she entwined their hands and she carefully squeezed his hand so her wounds wouldn’t hurt as much. “You sunk into it. I tried to save you. I tried so desperately to save you… you told me to get away but I simply couldn’t. You were devoured by it and I lost you.”

    Tears poured up in her eyes and leaked through her closed eyes. A tear rolled down her cheek and fell from her jaw.

    “It was only a dream.” His voice was smooth, smoother than silk and softer than feathers. “It won’t ever happen.”

    “But what if it happens?” She opened her eyes and she faced her partner, looking into his eyes as more tears trickled down her cheeks. “What if you really do disappear from me and I never get to see you again? I can’t take the real thing Soul. It hurt too much just in the dream―”

    “Maka.” He heaved himself up and crouched in front of her under the table. He cupped both of her cheeks and wiped away the tears from her cheeks. “It won’t _ever_ happen.”

    “But what if it _does_ happen?” She laid her own hands on his. “We’re running out of food and water and if we don’t find the Kishin we’ll be stuck here and the monster will kill us and eat our souls and―”

    “Maka!”

    She grew silent and she stared into his eyes. So calm and soft. How could he when she was a wreck?

    “It won’t _ever_ happen.” He wiped away a tear that escaped her eye. “This _won’t_ be our grave. We _won’t_ be separated again. We will _always_ be together. Even until we’re wrinkly and old sitting on the same porch.”

    “How can you be so sure?”

    “How?” A smile spread on his face that almost lit the dark space underneath the table. “Because it’s us. Our bond is the strongest in Shibusen, maybe even in the whole world. I won’t _ever_ leave you because I―”

    His sentence was caught off when suddenly their voices weren’t the only sound in the silent mine. Soul’s face whipped toward the side where the sound came from. The footsteps were light, nothing like the heavy stomps of the monster. They were light enough to be the little boy.

    “Soul.” Maka whispered and removed his hands from her cheeks and collected them in her hands. “Promise me you’ll tell me what you were about to tell me as soon as we get out of here.” She moved his hands to her lips and kissed his knuckles slowly.

    Their bond is the strongest one in Shibusen, maybe their bond was different from other meister and weapon pairs _because_ of her feelings and maybe, his? Maybe her feelings weren’t as one-sided as she thought.

    His eyes met hers once again and he nodded. “I promise.” He whispered just as softly.

    She gained new life. The doubt she felt and fear of losing her partner was eliminated and quickly both of them gathered their things and put on their backpacks. They put on their headlamps with fresh new batteries and turned them on as they got out from underneath the table. Instantly their hands entwined and Soul was careful not to hurt her sore palm. They crouched and hide behind a table with a dead boy lying on the table surface with a large fatal wound between his ribs.

    Maka’s plaster on her knee Soul put on her wound when she was slept made it more difficult for her to bend her knee as much as she wished, but she dealt with it.

    The two of them reached for each other’s headlamps and turned them off as the unknown source of the sound reached the dining area. The source of the light footsteps started to echo in the dining hall and they now knew they were under the same ceiling.

    _“Do you think it’s the kid?”_ Soul spoke to her through their bond.

    The steps were light and its sound like skin meeting stone. The unknown source was barefoot. The kid was also barefoot. The child’s steps were strong and determined and regular. The unknown source took three steps, before it came to a stop before it took three more. This source― maybe even person seemed aware and careful. The little boy had no reason to be careful.

    Her eyes fluttered shut and she switched to her Soul Perception. Her eyes opened and to her surprise, she did see a blue orb between ten and twenty yards away from them. The soul was gloving a bright blue shade, but its colour was slightly drained, pale, even exhausted.

    She her eyes fluttered closed and she turned off her Soul Perception.

    Maka sent her thoughts back to her partner who she felt patiently listened to her conclusions. _“I think we should confront this person. It could be a child and if it is the little boy, we could flee.”_

    He squeezed her hand, signalling he was in on the plan.

    Maka stood up and Soul followed shortly. Both of them lit their headlamps toward the direction of the sound. Instantly a figure was exposed and Maka sighed in relief when she saw it wasn’t the little boy. It was a man a few years older than them, or maybe even their age. The man’s clothes were damaged and dirtied with dry dark blood and mineral dust. Long pale hair covered the male’s eyes and came to an end at his upper lip. His jaw and throat was stained with dirt from the minerals and so were his hands. The male was crouched in front of a child and had his long nails over the body.

    His eyes narrowed instantly and he covered them quickly from their light as a hiss similar of the rat escaped his mouth. He looked like he’d been trapped down in the mine for a very long time.

    “You’ve nothing to fear.” Maka spoke up as both her and Soul rounded the table and started heading toward the male. “We’re from Shibusen. We’re investigating the mine for kidnapped children and we’re on a hunt for the Kishin responsible for this.”

    The male backpedalled as he covered his eyes desperately from the blinding light from their headlamps

    Maka’s eyes fluttered before she reached for her lamp strapped onto her forehead. Her partner instantly lashed onto her wrist, preventing her from turning off her lamp.

    _“We don’t know him.”_ He stared into her eyes with hard and worried eyes. _“I get a very… uneasy feeling.”_

    _“We don’t know him indeed and that’s why we need to get to know him. He must know things we don’t. If he’s comfortable he’ll speak more freely to us.”_

_“Even if that means making us more vulnerable?”_

_“We’ll have a glow stick lit. We’ll still be able to see.”_

_“But we will be more vulnerable for unknown attacks. What if he collaborates with them? We could be walking into a trap.”_

    A smile stretched her face and moved her hand to his cheek and cupped it gently. Her gloved thumb rubbed his cheek as his own hand released her wrist and lay above hers. His eyes flickered before his closed. A moment later he opened them, clear and understanding.

    _“I’ll trust you.”_ He entwined his hands with hers on his cheek. _“You better be careful.”_

    Her smile grew and she nodded. _“Right!”_

    Their hand separated and Maka turned off her headlamp as her partner dug through his bag for a glow stick. He broke it and it lit up the little it could. He followed and turned off his headlamp and only the glow stick lit up the darkness.

    “Don’t worry. We don’t want to hurt you.” Maka turned away from her partner and toward the darkness where they saw the male. Soul kept close to her side and their shoulders brushed.

    The light from the glow stick revealed the male and slowly his arms lowered, his hair was sticky and covered his eyes, but she could make out his half-lidded eyes. His hands lowered from his face, but his nails stayed ready as if to bounce on them like a predator would on a prey.

    “What’s your name―” Soul’s hand latched onto hers and prevented her from walking passed the last table to the man.

    _“This is close enough.”_

    The male’s mouth relaxed and covered his blackened teeth. His lower lips quivered and his mouth formed and O. He made unusual sounds as he exhaled through his mouth. “I…” He managed to speak. “Mo… thn… he… r.” His voice was beyond shaky and Maka had a hard time understanding. Slowly he moved his hands and pointed his sharp nail toward the direction he came from.

    “Monster? You mean the Kishin? You know where the Kishin is?” Maka took a step forward. Instantly Soul’s hand tightened on hers and tugged at her hand as he growled her name.

    The male nodded and pointed repeatedly toward the direction he came from.

    “Please, show us the way. We promise we will protect you from harm.” Maka encouraged him and took another step, which Soul clutched his other hand at her shoulder and pulled her a step backward protectively. Her heart couldn’t help but to flutter in her chest at his concern toward her.

    The unknown male repeatedly pointed toward the darkness, almost skipping a little as he moved toward the side.

    Maka made another try to near the male as he moved toward the way he came from.

    _“Maka.”_ Soul growled to her mind.

    Her hand in his tightened, squeezing it reassuringly.

    His hand slowly slipped from her shoulder, but his grip on her hand only tightened as they followed the strange man. Their hands stayed tightly entwined as they walked deeper inside of the corridor with only the glow stick to illuminate the walls and the back of the man’s back.

    The man occasionally spun around with his slightly bent knees and his crooked back to make sure they were still there before he would repetitively point toward the darkness in front of them. The fade light from the glow stick made the man’s pale and grey skin glow eerily. He would grin large toward them, exposing his dark and dirtied gum along with his yellow teeth.

    Her stomach twisted as the man spun around on his soles and grinned toward them as his hand pointed once again toward the darkness in front of them. Goosebumps spread on her neck and the hair on her arms rose.

    They continued to walk further away from the dining area and they entered a new corridors.

    Maka’s eyes quickly memorized every turn, every white salt mineral on the wall and every blood stain on the ground in order to find their way back to the elevator shaft.

    Slowly the ceiling grew higher and higher and the walls grew wider and wider. They grew until the walls disappeared into the dark and as they followed the man. The glow stick illuminated and from the darkness appeared a large old fashion truck with rusty sides and white spots on the trunk and hood. It had loads of wooden buckets on the trunk filled to the brim with large salt minerals. Blood stained the window and the door was ripped open, but no corpse was in sight.

    _“How the hell could they have gotten a truck down here? They certainly couldn’t have taken it down with the elevator.”_ Soul spoke to her mind as they went passed it, but her eyes couldn’t leave it.

    _“Maybe they brought it down some other way?”_ Maka poorly offered as she ripped her eyes off the truck and it became one with the darkness once again. The walls returned from the darkness and once again were they in another corridor.

    _“You’re probably right as always.”_

    They continued walking. Hand in hand. Following the strange man deeper into the mine’s mysterious corridors. The chills crawled up Maka’s spine, digging into her bone and paralyzing her back with the feeling of uneasiness.

    Something wasn’t right.

    _Something was not right._

    The man was mysterious. Dirty with mineral dust. His hair long and a beard decorated his face. He looked like he was trapped for years in the mine. Avoiding the monsters for that period of time.

    How on earth did he survive?

    As they continued through the corridor, the walls around them disappeared and only darkness was around them.

    _Drip._

    Automatically her head whipped toward the source of the sound.

    _Drop._

    Her head turned toward her left and quickly one more sound came. She recognized the sound all too well. After cooking large meals for special occasions, the dishes would gather in the sink and water drops would drip from the tap and hit the full bowls of water.

    Water. They’d found water in the mine.

    If there was water within the mine and if the walls gave in, they would drown and the mine would become their grave.

    “What… the…” Soul let go of her hand and reached for his forehead, struggled to turn on his head lamp while holding the glow stick in his left hand. The darkness was suddenly repealed by light and a large dark stone floor dived into dark water ten yards in front of them. By the water was an old and brown boat tied to a wooden pole.

    A loud growl escaped the man’s throat and he backed away from the bright light from Soul’s headlamp while covering his eyes with his dark stained hands.

    Soul didn’t seem to care. He entwined his hand with Maka’s and tugged it gently. She followed her weapon toward the water. Maka lit her own headlamp and the man covered in the darkness behind them, growling bestially.

    As they grew closer toward the water, their lights exposed small arms, legs, torsos and heads, various pieces from head to toe. Maka’s eyes caught sight of a small leg, the size of a small innocent child. The meat was forcefully ripped from the bone and the little skin it had left was pale and blue. By the big toe was a half-moon wound. Her gaze wandered to other body parts they passed and they were in the same condition; meat torn from the bone and covered in half-moons.

    Her eyes narrowed as they reached the place where the ground met water. Soul kneeled down toward the wooden pole and grabbed the rope. It was dark from age and strands of rope were loose. The boat wasn’t in a better shape. The wood was dark and white substance climbed up the dark wood. On the seat in the boat had moss started to grow. If she took a seat in it, she had a feeling the wood would give in.

    Soul abandoned the rope and sunk his hand into the water, cupping his hand and retrieving some water from the underground lake. He sniffed the water before he let the water drain through his fingers.

    “It smells like salt.”

    “A lot or a little?”

    On his hand she could see small spots of white of salt still lingering on his hand. “A lot.”

    Could the water be saturated with salt? The minerals surrounding them were dense and could sever their bond between their souls, so the possibility of the water being saturated is high.

    Naked feet on the stone ground neared them and they turned around toward the man. He hissed when the light settled on him and instantly both their hands reached for their headlamps and turned them off, leaving themselves in the darkness with their glow stick as their only light source. Slowly the man neared them and his bony arm raised and his razor sharp nail pointed toward the darkness.

    “Mo… thn… the… r.” The man forced the sound from his unused vocal cords.

    “Do we have to cross the lake? Is it on the other side?” Maka looked at the man, who nodded eagerly at her.

    Soul rose on his feet once again placed his hand on his meister’s shoulder.

    _“I don’t know if this is a good idea.”_ He spoke to her mind.

    Maka turned to her weapon and looked into his concerned red eyes. _“What do you mean?”_

    _“Look at the boat. That thing won’t hold us both even for a short trip.”_

    _“We could fly to the other side.”_

    _“With the ceiling as low as it is? I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like getting stabbed by those sharp rocks.”_

Her head rose and the radiance from the glow stick in Soul’s hand barely lit up the sharp rocks hanging down from the ceiling like icicles. It wouldn’t give them much room to fly to the other side of the lake.

    _“Then we only got one choice, don’t we?”_ She took the last step toward the old boat. His hand flung to her shoulder before she could put her foot down on the old floor of the boat.

    _“Don’t.”_ Soul spoke quickly into her mind.

    Her head whipped around and she stared into her partner’s scarlet eyes. Determination burned as strong and through the flames, she could see the small ball of concern for her well-being.

     _“I’ll get in first.”_ It wasn’t a question or an offer. It was a demand. An order. No compromise.

    Slowly she retrieved her leg from the boat and backed away. Soul handed her the glow stick and she cautiously watched him place his hands on the railing of the boat, putting his weight onto it. It creaked loudly and the water holding the boat up rippled. He paused before he swung his leg over the railing and got inside of the boat, it gave out an even louder creak.

    It was no secret that her partner was far superior than her in height and size. The boat managed him, maybe they had underestimated the boat.

    Soul bent his knees and jumped a little on the boat, the wood shrieked loudly but it did indeed hold his weight. His eyes dipped to his shoes and he started to jump greater on the boat. It still didn’t break.

    His eyes lifted and he held out his hand toward his partner. _“Your turn.”_

    With the boat earning it’s stamp of approval from her partner, she grabbed his hand as the sound of feet hitting stone sounded. His hand on hers tightened and held onto it tightly as if he feared for her absence. She swung her leg over the railing of the boat to the sound of rapid feet.

    Her partner suddenly and powerfully yanked at her hand and she stumbled into the boat. He whirled around on his heel loud animalistic growl snarled right at her ear and echoed throughout the mine. He lit up and his back disappeared from against her chest and his shaft took shape between her legs. His light lit up the cave walls around them. The strange man, the target of Soul’s unexpected action, had appeared from the shadows and in his raised hand he held a sharpened stone coated with dry blood. The man’s mouth was wide open, exposing his teeth with sharp red lines where gum met teeth. The body parts that hid in the darkness played no more hide-and-seek and realisation came crashing down on her.

    The rats weren’t the only ones feeding on the flesh of the dead.

    Wings quickly sprouted from Soul’s blade as the man stumbled toward the boat with the sharpened stone in his hand. Quickly Maka kicked off into the air and the wood couldn’t defend from Maka’s mighty legs and broke loudly. Soul’s wings fluttered and they rose as close to the ceiling as the man fell into the damaged boat and the boat gave in, it cracked loudly and broke into pieces.

    _Stomp._

    Maka’s blood ran cold when the all too familiar sound of the animalistic steps of the creature appeared.

    _Stomp stomp._

    It didn’t stop. It continued. More heavy stomps of the creature sounded and only grew louder.

    Maka’s hands quickly travelled to her headlamp strapped to her forehead and turned it on, exposing the man below them.

    The man below them, floating on the saturated lake of salt surrounded by wood pieces of the once boat, started to swing his arms violently, attempting at getting up from the lake and disappear from the monster approaching the cave they found themselves in. His breathing quickened and his arms hit the water in more panic as the steps grew louder and louder.

    They were students of Shibusen.

    Protectors of civilians and annihilators of evil.

    The man below them had crossed the line by feeding on human flesh. For that, his name would appear on Lord Death’s list.

    Maka’s hands tightened on Soul’s shaft and her jaw grew tense.

    But he _wasn’t._

    His name wasn’t on the list, which meant he was a civilian just like the innocent children that had been abducted down the mine.

    _“Wait. Just because he isn’t on the list means he’s innocent.”_ Soul interrupted her thoughts. _“We’ve proof he isn’t innocent, why he deserved to be eliminated. We could let him die. Have you already forgotten what I told you about earlier? ”_

    Maka hadn’t forgotten. Not even for a second. If the devoured souls truly travelled to the Kishin through a bond between the creature and the Kishin, it would lead them straight to the Kishin if they let the man be. Their time was running out. With no more food or water left, they wouldn’t last more than twenty-four hours. They wouldn’t have enough energy to fight the Kishin if they managed to find it.

    _“Maka. He’s evil. You know if we flew with him, we wouldn’t be able to fly for long. We both would be screwed too.”_

    Maka bit her lower lip as she watched the man below panic even more as the steps grew louder. It was only a matter of seconds before the creature would enter the chamber.

    If they were to take the man on, the extra weight would be too much for them and the creature could only wait them out before they would have to land. Not to forget, the man still clutched onto his sharpened rock. He wasn’t clean of suspicion. He still proved to be a threat to them since he could attack them in mid-air.

    _“He could seriously hurt you. He’s evil and both you and I know he’s supposed to be on Death’s list. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if something happened to you.”_

    A loud roar echoed in the chamber and Maka’s light snapped instantly to the opening where the creature appeared tall and hideous. A cold blooded scream escaped from the man’s mouth below them. It pierced right through Maka’s heart and made her spine tense. All her body hair rose and her eyes widened at the sight of the creature moving toward the man still tumbling around in the saturated water.

    Her body moved on instinct. She moved the shaft of Soul downward and all she could hear was Soul sighing in her soul. They dived quickly toward the lake and Maka reached for the man. His eyes met hers and in the frightened eyes, they softened the slightest. Her hand grabbed a hold of his soaked hand and felt the salt from the water on his skin.

    _“Up Soul!”_ She screamed to her partner.

    The beast nostrils flared as he grew closer and closer. Their wings fluttered as they slowly rose toward the ceiling. The man lifted from the salty lake and water dripped from his toes and hit the surface, creating ripples.

    _“We won’t make it!”_

    The creature neared them fast. His hooves hit the surface and jumped up into air, his hand latching onto the man’s foot. Quickly they lost two feet of air when the beast pulled them down.

    Maka’s nails dug in her glows as she tried to cling onto the man. The creature snarled loudly and bared his sharp teeth, tugging mightily at the man’s leg. His hand was slipping. His soaked hand made it difficult for her to cling onto. As much as she dug her fingers in his wrist, his arm was slipping.

    Her eyes met the ones of the man. They were twisted with fear and realization of his closing doom was written all over his face.

    Maka’s stomach twisted with empathy when the beast sunk his teeth into the man’s leg. A loud scream ripped through his vocal cords and his face twisted with pain. The beast pulled strongly at the man’s feet. His wrist slipped from her hand and he hit the water.

    She couldn’t take it. It was like a sword pierced her stomach and twisted it. She looked away from the beast and the man as they rose higher in the air to the sound of the man’s horrifying scream and the sound of flesh and bone being torn apart.

    _“You did what you could do to save him.”_ Soul soothingly whispered to her mind. _“There was nothing more we could do.”_

    Her eyelids fluttered closed and her hands tightened on the metal.

    She failed.

    She wanted to do the right thing by saving him, even though he’d done wrong, he didn’t deserve to die so cruelly and hideously. No one does. He’d face death in a more painless fashion and more dignifying, even though he didn’t deserve it since he ruthlessly ate the flesh of corpses and tried to kill her. Who knew if he’d killed an innocent child and ate its flesh.

    _“I know you’re hurting, but we’ve to see if my theory is a fact.”_

    She inhaled and exhaled heavily, gathering the courage she was infamous for in Death City. The cold metal of Soul slowly grew warmer and it reminded her of his warm large hand on her shoulder. It was soothing and comforting to her and gave her the courage to open her eyes slowly.

    Her vision instantly switched to her Soul Perception and she only saw darkness. And a blue orb. In the creature’s stomach.

    The creature hollered loudly and the orb bounced in the creature’s stomach as his hooves hit loudly in the water again. She focused on the orb as Soul took care of the height difference between the creature’s hands and her feet. The orb continued to bounce up and down, up and down, up and down, repeating its pattern.

    _“I don’t think it will go anywhere.”_ She sighed and her shoulders slouched. _“It stays put in his stomach.”_

    _“You sure? No movement? Not at all?”_ Soul’s voice rose in pitch.

    Her eyes stayed focused on the orb. _“No. Nothing at a― wait!”_ His soul. The surface of the soul was melting. It was being peeled off, layer after layer. It continued until the soul was broken down into liquid substance. It splashed inside of the creature’s stomach as it continued to jumping. The soul continued to glow and slowly moved away from the stomach and to the tailbone.

    _“I can’t believe my eyes.”_ She spoke into his mind as she watched the soul settle at the tailbone. _“It’s moving! It’s been liquefied!”_ It shot out from the creature’s tailbone and a string from his tailbone lit up. The soul travelled fast from the string and out of the cave.

    _“It’s getting away!”_

    They were already on it. With Maka’s Soul Perception, she saw the direction the soul travelled toward and Soul was her eyes, guiding her so they wouldn’t crash into a wall.

    The creature roared loudly and instantly the stomps followed them.

    Wind ripped at Maka’s pigtails as her eyes stayed focused on the blue glow travelling through the string. She refused to blink, afraid it would disappear. No matter how dry her eyes became, she would not blink. Her focus drained out the hectic and stressful sound of the creature’s heavy steps.

    _“Hold on tight.”_ But her partner’s voice remained strong.

    They rolled and Maka leaned closer to the warm metal of Soul. The blue glow ducked behind walls of salt, but Soul was fast and they remained close on its tail. They would turn and quickly and drastically and Soul always made sure her hands stayed on his shaft.

    The blue orb continued to travel through the maze, they flew passed the rusty truck, they swiftly flew through the dining area, and Maka’s eyes widened when the glow suddenly dipped downward.

    They’d reached the elevator shaft.

    Quickly they followed and flew downwards, chasing the glow to the now absence of the creature.

    _“Release the Soul Perception.”_

    Maka commanded and she just in time saw the approaching ground, familiarly Soul slowed down and Maka landed on the metal floor covered with salt crystals. On the ground she could see liquid and the broken shards from a glow stick on top of an emergency escape. From an elevator. Instantly she released her partner, who lit up and transformed back to normal. She flung her hands on the hatch, pulling at the metal rode. Salt crystals cracked and broke as she lifted the hatchet and it shrieked loudly. They quickly dived inside and closed it.


	5. Level Four

**Below**

_Level Four_

 

Both of them landed on torn and broken metal of the elevator’s floor. The walls were wrinkled and white salt mineral stained the walls. The metal braided door was busted out of the way and exposed a secret corridor.

    Her partner immediately turned on his headlamp and entwined his hand with his partner’s. Silently Maka ducked from hitting her head on the damaged doorframe and gazed at the new floor level.

    The walls missed the wooden bars which prevented the corridor from collapsing. The corridor was also smaller than the ones above them. The walls were completely covered with marks of Lord Death’s skull with large Xs on top of them with _‘liar’_ written all around the wall crazily with large bold letters.

    “Maka.” His voice was soft, but had a strong touch to it. “We don’t want to spend unnecessary time here.”

    She understood exactly what he meant. He’d thought exactly like her. The corridor was unstable, one wrong move could send the whole mine caving in on their heads.

    She inhaled and it was completely different than the smell from the rest of the mine. The overwhelming smell of rust, copper and salt had clogged up her sense of smell, but now, it was like sniffing an entirely different air. Her nose could detect the copper smell of blood, salt from the white crystals on the walls, but then it was the strange smell she couldn’t quite detect. It was humid, almost as if she inhaled carbon dioxide, but the air wasn’t as lifeless as it. The air stung her nose and felt so vividly, so full with movement.

    “Can you feel it?” His hand tightened significantly on hers. She turned toward her partner whose eyes are wide and bloodshot. A large grin spread on his face as much as his body allows him without tearing his flesh open.

    Realization hit her hard.

    Madness. The madness the Kishin gave out was trapped inside of the mine due to the salt minerals. The Kishin would send out the madness, then it was trapped on level four, it could feed on its own energy to gain strength.

    The Kishin was no fool.

    She sent out her wavelength to her partner who instantly reacted. A soothing resonance between the two was quickly complete and his hand in hers relaxed. His grin disappeared and his shoulders relaxed.

    _“Thank you.”_

    She softly smiled toward her partner. _“You’re welcome.”_

    Her eyes abandoned his and she looked toward the darkness.

    She could feel it without using her Soul Perception. The madness. The pulsing of the madness and liveliness of it. The pulses were strong and the vividness fresh, it came from within the darkness and it couldn’t be far from their location.

    Her hand tightened on her partner’s and her body tensed.

    This was it. They’d found the Kishin. After wandering around the mine for hours, receiving wounds and wounds, almost dying and getting stabbed by a cannibal, they’d finally reached their target.

    She swallowed excessive saliva down.

    Maka was ready. She was beyond tired of the mine. One last push and they would be free from the dark and hurtful mine. She was going to kick the Kishin’s butt fast, get a nice hot bath in the beautiful in in the village and enjoy a large hamburger with fries. Not to mention she was going to make the fuck out of―

    The loud sound of crinkling of metal and dust exploded from the elevator to be followed by a loud roar of the creature.

    Their eyes widened and quickly Soul tugged at her hand and they ran deeper into the darkness, away from the creature. Lord Death’s symbol along with the letters grew in numbers and interlaced in each other on the walls. The air pulsing with madness grew stronger and the walls turned the opposite way and the ceiling rose. The air sparked with madness and sound of heavy and fast breathing was heard within the darkness their lights didn’t reach.

    Her eyebrows narrowed when the familiar sensation of worms at the back of her head sneakily tried to infiltrate her mind―

    Soul was no longer beside her. But in front of her. On his knees. Blood stained his face and in his arms he cradled… her. A large fatal wound between her ribs. Her eyes were open and hollow. Blank. Like plenty of the innocent children’s corpses.

    Her stomach twisted and bile rose in her throat. Déjà vu made her head spin and the strange image of the younger boys struck her to the very core.

    The ground under her cracked and up from the ground appeared pale tentacles. They snaked up her feet. She kicked and shook her feet, but they continued to climb up her legs and passed her knee.

    Her eyes fluttered. Her hand was warm. Soul in front of her and she flickered like a broken television. The familiar sensation of worms returned and she realised, she was still holding Soul’s hand. All of his thoughts rushed into her mind and another round of déjà vu hit her. He thought of the same forest she’d been inside of when her partner was possessed. What separated her experience from his was he didn’t see two boys for a short moment, he was stuck in the forest for hours, he was on his knees and clutching her stone-cold body. Just like the image she saw earlier. His painful screams and disgusting sobs, hiccups and his utterly heartbroken expression made her gut twist with pain. He was utterly convinced she was gone and she knew if she was the one cradling him in her arms, her face would be dirtied with tears and snot and saliva mixing on her lips and chin.

    Immediately she raised the Soul Resonance and the image of them instantly disappeared and so did the worms at the back of their heads. The tentacles from the ground came to a stop at the hem of her skirt before they were gone.

    Both of them ran with the beast close on their tail. The light of their headlamps reached shorter in the darkness and the madness grew thicker and made it more difficult for them to see.

    They came to a shrieking halt when two bright red eyes lit up in the darkness. The sound of teeth sinking into bone and blood hitting ground sounded.

    Instantly Soul transformed into his weapon form and his light repealed the darkness for only a moment. His light exposed the Kishin which was gnawing on his fingertips which were now loose strips of meat and bone. Tentacles came out from his back and hovered over them, ready for attack.

    As soon as his metal shaped and the light disappeared, the Kishin hid in the darkness.

    _“We need light before the Kishin sneaks up on us.”_ Soul spoke.

    _“Right. You still got glow sticks on you?”_

    She could feel her partner smirking wide to the sound of the creature’s stomps and bare feet on stone floor.

    Quickly Maka shook off her backpack and hooked the strap to the scythe. _“Spread them out and I’ll come to you. Don’t let the madness get to you.”_ Soul sensed her intentions as Maka spun him around and the tip of the blade was dragged along the floor. Sparks flew and her bag was dragged along the floor. The sparks didn’t light up as much as her partner did, but it allowed her to see the silhouette of the mad Kishin in the dark. Soul was about to speak up but she let go of her partner and threw him to the other side of the Kishin. Instantly he transformed back and his light repelled the darkness of the Kishin’s madness.

    The Kishin was once again exposed and the Kishin’s tentacles went to attack. They soared toward her, she rolled on the ground and the tentacles plunged into the ground where she stood merely micro seconds ago.

    Her partner quickly ripped up they backpacks with his transformed fingers and gripped the last remaining glow sticks in each bag, breaking them.

    Maka headed toward her partner with the tentacles close behind her. The soft green light in the mist of madness made it easier for her to aim for her partner. She expected him to discard the glow stick and threw them toward every angle of the room, but that didn’t happen.

    She reached for his presence at the back of her head to feel her partner, she wasn’t even surprised when she felt the presence of the Kishin in his mind.

    “Soul!” She shrieked and rolled toward him. Her hand latched onto his shoulder and sent a massive wave of her wavelength to her partner. The Kishin’s presence in her partner instantly vanished. As he transformed, he threw the glow sticks away toward every direction of the chamber. His light exposed the one of the creature with the small child seated on his left shoulder with a large and bloody pickaxe in his small hands. The same pickaxe she’d poorly wielded in their first encounter. The creature picked the child up from the back of his shirt and threw him toward them.

    Maka’s eyes bulged out at the action, but what should she expect from a sadistic and emotionless creature like the Kishin controlling the two puppets. She blocked the little boy’s pickaxe and pushed him away from her. The creature roared mightily and swung his claws at her. She ducked and instantly the little boy was in front of her with his pickaxe ready.

    The little boy and the creature worked perfectly together. They would take turns attacking her and always when she managed to get one of them off her, the other would attack at her blind spot. Only her partner warnings prevented her from being killed at the hands of the puppets.

    Maka was forced to backpedal away from the two.

    _“Behind you!”_

    She barely had time to witness what was behind them, only a shadow a glow stick managed to cast showed a tentacle aiming for her neck. She threw herself away from it and the child’s pickaxe dug into the ground between her legs where she landed.

    The creature went toward her with his arms raised and ready to attack. Maka hissed and swung her weapon at him, slicing him once again in two at the waist. It gave Maka enough time to get up on her feet and clutch both of her hands on her weapon.

    To her shock and amazement, the beast was already healing. The madness quickened the healing process and the lower and upper parts moved toward each other puppet-like and healed in a matter of seconds.

    The Kishn attacked her with his tentacles, the little boy came at her with his pickaxe and the creature with his claws. Her enemies left her no opening to breathe or relax, if she did, she would end up with a hole in her stomach or her skull bashed open.

    Quickly her hope decreased. Even if she managed to take out the boy and the creature, the Kishin would mend them together in a heartbeat. There was no opening at attacking the Kishin. None at all.

    _“I got an idea.”_ Soul spoke to her in her head. _“Geniehunter. Bust through the puppets and get to the Kishin. That should do it.”_

    _“It’s worth a try.”_

    She had run out of ideas and she was willing at trying anything at the moment.

    Maka evaded the beast’s claws by doing a backflip and performing cartwheels away from them at the same time her resonance with her partner increased. A scream left both of their mouths as Soul’s blade grew. The room became lighter than ever and the Kisihin hollered, covering his eyes.

    Soul’s blade took shape of the Geniehunter and she leaped forward. The little boy jumped at her, she used the end of her shaft to push him away. Her partner warned her about the beast attacking from behind and kicked him in his solar plexus. It left her with the opening she longed for. Tentacles came at her and she sliced them. They hit the ground and the Kishin hollered loudly in pain. She leaped toward the Kishin and raised her blade.

    “This is where you die!” She yelled at the top of her lungs and dug the blade into the Kishin’s shoulder.

    The Kishin stayed silent. His arms were limp and his remaining tentacles frozen. The blade dug deeper into the shoulder, breaking its collarbone and ribs, still no scream of death.

    Her eyes widened when she felt it. Madness travelling from every corner of the room toward Kishin’s wound, healing and preventing her from killing it.

    She’d failed. Their big move had failed.

    A large grin grew on the Kishin’s face and a tentacle aimed for her stomach. She gasped and was forced to pull away from it. The tentacle graced her shoulder and instantly, images of her partner lying on the ground, dead with all of his organs on the ground and his eyes gone. Instantly words were forced in her mind, _“itwasmyfault”, “Icouldn’tprotecthim”, “hediedbecauseofme”_ and _“Ikilledhim”_.

    She shook her head and hit the ground. The Kishin had inserted the pictures and words into her mind. She couldn’t believe them. Her partner was well and here and breathing and―

    _“Take a breath and roll to the right.”_ He said with his strain, but yet so calm voice. He managed to calm down her shaking body and made it possible for her to follow his instructions, avoiding the claws that swept air where she once was.

    _“What are we supposed to do?”_ Maka spoke to her partner as she avoided the small child. _“Whatever we do, the madness fixes it. How are we supposed to win with all that madness everywhere?”_

    She felt her partner’s jaw clench as the worms from the Kishin tried to penetrate their resonance and insert themselves into their minds.

    Attacks continued to be thrown at her. She cut off the small child’s left leg but it grew out as soon as it hit the floor.

    The situation was hopeless. The more she fought, the more out of breath she became. She couldn’t keep up her speed and strength forever. Her hope she felt when they entered the chamber was not as high as it used to be. It was floored and her muscles were heavy with fatigue. Her breathing was short and hurried and she was in desperate need of a minute long breather.

    _“Maybe we don’t need to destroy the madness.”_

    Maka’s eyes fluttered with confusion as she stumbled backwards away from the pickaxe and the tentacles.

    _“The Kishin wants to play mind tricks with us, I say we use that to our advantage and destroy it from the inside like we―”_

_“―did to Asura! Soul you’re a genius!”_

    A cocky grin grew on her face as her partner went up to his precious piano and immediately started to play, but not the one of the black blood mood, but the one of Adagio. Quickly she caught on his thinking and swept her scythe in the air. First the beast went into the spiderweb of music they produced and his movement slowed down. Next was the child and he also slowed down, as quickly as they were fully still, the Kishin roared with annoyance, he changed the song to the one of the crazed black blood melody. White liquid leaked from her clothes, making her skirt longer and exposing her collarbones. Her heavy boots was replaced with beautiful strapped high heels and white feathers grew from her pigtails. The familiar dress moved like liquid around her legs. She could feel the madness like never before. Soul’s blade grew bigger and brighter, piano keys appeared on his white scythe.

    For every breath she took, she felt the madness heartbeat like loud music inside a club. She felt it so clearly it didn’t make it difficult for her to harmonise with the Kishin’s madness.

    Her eyes fluttered shut and her eyes within her soul opened up. She didn’t remain in her white dress given by the black blood, instead she was in her normal clothes except for her jacket. Soul still remained in his scythe form. Darkness surrounded them.

    _“Don’t let your guard down. Who knows what traps he’s got here.”_

    She nodded and she slowly started to float forward. It was like she was floating in the air with no wind caressing against her cheeks or legs. She felt the flickering of the Kishin’s soul in the darkness and moved toward it.

    As they moved forward, from the darkness appeared a wounded Soul. His hair was messy and bloody, his clothes were stained with blood and he clutches his fatal wound between his ribs. He collapsed on his knees and coughed up blood.

    “Maka…” He coughed up more blood which dripped from his chin. “Help me.”

    Maka came to a halt. She was well aware it was an illusion, but it still made her heart twist with pain and the words the Kishin injected in her head whispered in her mind.

    “I’m ok.” Soul spoke up from his weapon form, sending soothing wavelength to her. “We’re both alive and breathing.”

    Her heart fluttered at his support which gave her the strength to walk pass the cheap wounded copy of her weapon. He tried to hold her ankle but his fingers slipped as she continued to walk with determination and her partner in her hand. She could feel him holding her hand, squeezing it reassuringly as if he wasn’t in his weapon form.

    They continued to walk. Corpses appeared in the darkness. First a woman with dark hair she didn’t recognize. Then what Maka supposed to be a man judging by the ripped and masculine muscles on his unharmed upper body. His legs was minced, bones sprouted from the flesh that used to be legs. Where his head was supposed to be was crushed and black hair strands were mixed in the brain substance. Then the young boy with the fatal wound between his ribs she saw earlier.

    A small wooden door with copper frame appeared in the darkness. She came to a stop in front of the door and glanced at her partner.

    _“You ready?”_

    _“Ready as I can be.”_

    She grabbed the rusty red doorknob and twisted it. It shrieked as it glide open, revealing dark walls with dark floors and copper pillars at every turn of the hexagon-shaped room. Cautiously she stepped inside of the room and the door closed behind her.

    In the middle of the room was a black sphere. It reminded her a lot of black blood, but the wavelength she picked up from the sphere didn’t match her suspicion. Slowly she neared the black sphere and the closer she got, she could see a silhouette within the sphere. The silhouette was small, the one of a child. Noise came out from the sphere. She tilted her head toward the left and listened to the noise.

    It was mumbling.

    “Father… attack… brother… attack… revenge…” It was repeated constantly. Not a single breath from the silhouette was lost.

    The Kishin soul was in front of them, trapped within the black sphere of liquid.

    Slowly Maka raised her scythe, their resonance grew and Soul’s blade shaped once again into Geniehunter. Her blade came down and slashed it in two pieces.

    The effect was instant. The floor she stood on liquefied and her boots sunk. The liquid took shape of hands, then heads and shoulders. Groans escaped from the liquid monsters as they clung onto her legs, trying to pull her down.

    “Get out of there!” Soul yelled at her and quickly, Maka changed the channel of her wavelength and instantly they were brought out from the Kishin’s soul.

    On the outside it was screaming loudly. The little boy and creature held their heads and roared loudly in pain. The Kishin swung his body crazily, hitting the walls and the ceiling. Rocks fell down from the walls as the Kishin expanded and expanded. His body continued to swell and gave no sign of stopping.

    “We need to get the hell out of here before the mine comes crumbling down on us!” Maka exclaimed and Soul complied. Wings grew from the piano blade and Maka hoped on immediately.

    The Kishin burst and blood was splattered on her and every surface in sight. The cave came collapsing. Rocks came down like domino as Maka and Soul took flight toward the elevator. The corridor came collapsing close after them. The sound of rocks hitting the ground was deafening to Maka’s ears. As the elevator came in sight, for a split second Maka jumped up from the blade, cutting a large hole in the elevator and then flew in it.

    Rocks came crumbling down from above them. Soul carefully evaded them as they continued up, up and up. Rocks came pouring around them like rain, dust from the fall came chasing after them. The mouths to level three and two crumbled as they passed and rocks exploded out from them as they passed. The metal ropes suspended from the ceiling shrieked loudly before they gave in and came crashing down toward them. Maka clung onto her partner and rolled away from the hinder. The second rope came and quickly Maka slashed it into two pieces. They reached the first level and darted toward the exit. A strong pink light attacked their eyes and Maka had to cover her eyes with her free hand. They came to a stop and gazed down at the mouth of the mountain they came out of. The wooden frame got crushed and rock exploded from it as the rest of the mountain crack into pieces.

    “We’re not going to get our bags back, are we?” Maka whispered as she watched the mountain collapse and dust rose in the air, completely blocking her view of the once mountain and hidden mine.

    “Seems like it.” She turned away and they continued to fly away from the mine where the Kishin and puppets laid dead and buried thousand feet below.

    “How are we supposed to explain to Kid about the Kishin’s ability to control the puppets within a mine full of salt, where even we couldn’t maintain our bond?” He spoke softly as they slowly descended toward a green meadow, from the danger of the abandoned mine.

    “I don’t know.” She whispered as the ground neared them. “Maybe some questions are better of left unanswered.” Her right foot touched the green silky grass and her white dress disappeared and she was left in her bloody clothes. Soul lit up and transformed back into his human shape. Without communication, Soul kneeled down and Maka crawled up on her weapon’s back. Her shoulder screamed with pain and her muscles weighted heavily with fatigue. Sleep was around the corner and she could fall asleep on her partner’s soft back.

    But she couldn’t.

    “Remember what you said in the dining area.” She softly whispered as her eyes fluttered shut.

    “Oh… Yeah… _that_.” He paused.

    Here it came.

    “I just… wanted to say…”

    Her happy ending with her partner was finally here.

    “You stink. That shit from the Kishin smells like crap.”

    It wasn’t here.

    She let out an annoying strangle of frustration as her eyes snapped open. “I DIDN’T EVEN HAVE THAT SHIT ON ME WHEN WE WERE IN THE DINING AREA!” She kicked her feet and Soul was forced to kneel down and release her knees. She punched her partner in the shoulder. “You’re unbelievable…”

    He groaned and rubbed his sore shoulder as he watched his partner walk away from him. A smile tugged at his cheeks as he followed his meister as the disgustingly in love pile of feelings he was.

    “Wait up! You’re still hurt.”

    “Shut up. I smell like crap remember.”

    “Yeah, but you wouldn’t smell so bad if you roll in the grass and got some of that shit off you.”

    “You’re unbelievable.”

    As soon as Soul caught up with his meister, their hands automatically entwined and they continued to bicker as they headed toward the small village.


End file.
